


A New Family

by AydiTiger, Viandir



Series: Steam Powered Giraffe: A New Family [1]
Category: Steam Powered Giraffe
Genre: Bullying, Dreams and Nightmares, Family, Fluff, Gender Dysphoria, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Lies, New Family, Other, Own characters Dread and Rosé, Past Abuse, Protective Siblings, Sibling Bonding, Suicidal Thoughts, Swearing, Zero is mentioned, but won't show up in this story, cyborg, slight angst, sorry - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-10
Updated: 2018-08-06
Packaged: 2019-05-20 15:57:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 23
Words: 42,421
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14897579
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AydiTiger/pseuds/AydiTiger, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Viandir/pseuds/Viandir
Summary: It's in the end of spring when Peter Walter VI and Chelsea finds a teen who has been killed by a gang when he tried to save an abused little robot named Broke. They take her in to their home and names her Rosé and she finally has a real home. Peter knew the boy and his parents and decides to save the dead boy as well and the only way to save him is to make him a Cyborg. He success and names him Dread but the boy doesn't remember his past life or his real family and Peter decides to not tell him or his family the truth, thinking it would only make Dread's family more heartbroken. But for how long will he be able to keep his secret? Follow Dread and Rosé on their smal adventures with their new family!Warning: Includes mostly fluff and family feels but also includes things like abuse, suicidal thoughts and Gender Dysphoria that can trouble some readers. It isn't that bad but be prepared.





	1. The Forgotten

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! So, this is my first fanfic and sorry if it isn't the best and some words may be misspelled because english isn't my first language. I hope you will enjoy the story anyway :)  
> Written by me and my friend Viandir.

It all started that misty, rainy evening. It was at the end of spring and a young man, about 19 years old, was slowly walking in the small city in only a black coat. It was cold but he didn't care, it felt good when the rain hit him. But as he was walking, being in his own little world, he suddenly heard a sound and looked to his side and saw three men corner something small that was covering in a corner. They started to hit it with what looked like pipes while the small figure whimpered. One of them said "This is what you deserve, you piece of shit!" and then started kicking it too. The young boy just stared for a second before anger spread thru his body, this wasn't right. What the hell where they doing? As he walked closer he saw what it was. It looked like a child at first but it was a robot, he could see it by the silver instead of skin and she didn't have real hair. It looked so innocent and scared and the eyes held so much emotion. A robot or not, he was gonna save her. He walked over to the men and pushed one of them aside with his walking stick he used when he took long walks. Not to hard but enough so the man stepped away.  
-The fuck!?" he swore at him.  
-Stop it, she hasn't done anything to you!"  
-And who the fuck are you?" the man asked and looked at him threateningly. The others surrounded him as well, they were bigger and stronger than him but he tried to stand tall and showed no fear. He took a step closer to them.  
-None of your business, listen you piece of shit! Don't mess with that freaking kid" the smaller one of the men only smirked at his words.  
-It's not a kid, it's just a broken mistake!" he said.  
-A human or not, it deserves love too, unlike you!" the boy threatened and stood protectively in front of the small robot.  
-Let's get this dude away too then, like that little shit." the biggest one, probably the leader, said, looking at the small robot and the boy, patting his pipe threateningly.  
-Yeah, get this shit over with" the other said and they all raised their pipes and the smaller one took out a crowbar from his jacket. The boy barely had time to react before pain shot thru his head and body but then he felt nothing and was flying into emptiness...then silence. The crowbar had crushed his skull and his body took some hits by the pipes, and no one came to save him. Like always, he has always been alone, but at least he died to try to save someone...  
Meanwhile a man and a young woman was walking close to the alleyway where everything had happened. The man named Peter, whose jacket hoodie covered much of his face to hide his keyhole mask, had for a while after the attack felt that something was wrong nearby and walked towards the crime scene, ignoring his friend's questions behind him. A police car was already there and held people at bay as they waited for the ambulance. A boy was laying on the ground, his skull crushed and his clothes was covered in blood like the ground he was laying on. Peter later saw a walking stick a couple of meters from the body that had belonged to the him. It was a small giraffe head on the top of it.  
-God, what happened here...?" his friend said beside him in shock and held her hand before her mouth. The man only stared at the boy silently, not answering in any way. She walked up closer to him.  
-Peter?"  
-I know this boy..."  
-You do?"  
-Yes it's a friend of mine's son."  
-Oh, I'm so sorry..."

A new car suddenly showed up and a woman came out and looked at the scene with shock too before she started to cry, the policemen tried to hold her back. Peter walked over to her and put a hand on her shoulder.  
-I'm sorry, Nora. He was a good boy..."  
-Why him, Peter? Why, what has he ever done? Why did they kill him?" she cried. Behind his mask, Peter frowned, he didn't have an answer to her. All he could do was try to comfort her. Suddenly he heard a weak noise not far from the boy's body, no one else seemed to have heard it. He walked over to the body as his friend talked to Nora. He took a better glance at him. What had the poor boy done to deserve this? The soft noises he had heard were whimpers and something was moving by the trashcans. Something small. He bent down by it and in the dark by the wall was a small robot. She had only a grey hoodie on that was worn places and some baggy black trouser, also torn and dirty. She must have lived on the streets for a long time. The first thought that came to mind was: Where was It's creators? Someone had built it but why was it here? He then looked over to the boy and soon understood. Had he protected the robot and died trying? He had risked his life for the robot he didn't even know. And brutally so. Peter felt sorry for them both, who could have done this? He looked back to the covering robot.  
-It's Ok, little one, I won't hurt you" He took of his hoodie a little to show his "Face". The robot soon took their hands away from their optics. They shined baby blue in the darkness, he saw mostly fear in them but also curiosity. It looked just like a little girl about 5 years old and had long black "hair". She had a scar than ran down from her temple, down through her right eye and to her chin. The eye flashed blue and then to no color at all as if was broken and some places on her face looked more broken, even smashed. But she was at least still alive unlike the boy, perhaps the attackers didn't get the time to finish her when the police or someone who had witnessed the crime had come by? Peter tilted his head ever so slightly towards her.  
-Do you have a name?" he asked softly. Could it even talk at all? She seemed to understand what he was saying at least, but then she stuttered with a weak voice:  
-Broke..." he nodded. She was indeed broken but what kind of name was that?  
-Where are your creators?" she looked down sadly, her head was twitching slightly.  
-D-don't know" she said simply. "They left me, I'm a m-mistake" Peters heart broke a little. It was like he was watching one of his "children".  
-You're not a mistake, little one. You can come with me, I will take care of you" she still looked unsure and didn't move from her spot. "I promise I won't hurt you" He gave her his hand and her tiny one took it and they walked out from the darkness. He then looked at the boy and his crying mother again. If he could save the little robot he could save the boy, somehow, if his parents really wished for it...


	2. New siblings

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter up! and Spine, Rabbit, Jon and Hatchworth will make an appearance :)

A few hours later Peter, Walter worker Chelsea and his new friend Broke was home in the Walter Mansion. Broke walked close to him and looked nervous. Peter hoped his sons and daughter would be extra careful with her. She had been thru enough. When they opened the doors Broke looked more fascinated of their giant home than scared now and let go of Peter’s leg to look around. The silence broke when quick steps came towards them and one of Peter's sons showed up by one of the doorframes...  
-Hi, Peter! Hi, Chelsea!" he said happily. Broke hid behind Peter again with a whimper. The other robot looked down at her with worry and curiosity, tilting his head.  
-Jon, this is Broke, she will live here for now on but be careful, she is very scared."   
-Oh, sorry." he apologized and looked down with regret.  
-It's ok, but could you please go and get the others too?"   
The robot shined up again.  
-Of course, Peter! See you later, Broke!" then he hurried away to get the others.  
-That was just one of my sons, little one." Peter said to Broke but didn't touch her in case it would make her more scared.   
-He is very kind but just a little energetic." Chelsea said smiling. Peter smiled as well and hoped Broke wouldn’t get to overwhelmed.

-Guys!" Jon called. Spine looked up from the book he was reading and Rabbit and Hatchworth stopped playing their instruments.   
-What’s up, Jon?" Rabbit said.  
-Peter wanted you to come. He has come with a new robot!" he said excitedly. The robots shared happy looks, a new sister or brother?  
-It was a girl. But he wanted us to be careful, she looked very scared..." Jon continued.  
-Scared?" Spine asked, his book now in his lap. "Where did he find her?"  
-In the city I think. She looked so small and broken." the other three robots now also looked worried.  
-Well, then, let's greet our new sister!" Hatchworth said happily. They all started to walk over to the big hall. She really was small and her clothes were torn and her face was a little broken. Jon had right about that she was scared. She was hiding behind Peter and her eyes were filled with fear. They made sure to not stand to close to her. Peter knew that Spine would be no problem but he wondered how the others would react to her. When they first saw her, they looked at her with sympathy.   
-Everyone, this is Broke, and Broke, this is my sons and daughter.' Broke dared to peek at them. Jon was the first one to fully greet her. He knelt before her.  
-Hi, Broke, I'm The Jon as you probably knew, nice to meet you." he smiled kindly and Broke shook his hand he held out for her. He was surprisingly gentle to Peter's relief. He was the shortest one of the group so Broke felt as ease. Next was Rabbit.   
-I-I’m Rabbit. I’m sure we will be good friends." She also smiled kindly. Broke smiled back shyly.   
-This is our brother, Spine." she pointed at the tall silver one with a dark suit, red tie and black fedora. He looked kind of intimidating and was the tallest one but also had that calming and mature look that calmed Broke down.  
-Silly name, I know!" Rabbit joked and Jon and the others snickered. Spine looked at her with a neutral expression.  
-Hilarious every time, huh?" he said tiredly but there was a hint of humour in his voice. He then looked down at Broke.  
-Pleasure to meet you, Broke."  
-What kind of name is that anyway?" Hatchworth said with a tilt of his head while rubbing his chin.  
-Yea, that does not suit ya'." Rabbit said.   
-Some of us are named after things that symbolise us or something we like for example." Jon said.  
-Yes." Rabbit said. "What do you like?" Broke wondered for a moment and looked at some flowers by one of the windows.  
-I like roses..." she said softly.  
-Sounds good! Hey, we can name you Rosé!" Jon said with a smile. Broke shined up slightly. She liked that name, she had never had a real name before. She smiled and nodded. Peter, Chelsea and the robots looked pleased at this.  
-That's settled then. I'm Hatchworth by the way." Hatchworth continued and took of his hat to bow slightly. He looked kind of funny with his weird orange moustache, Rosé never knew that a robot could even have that. "But you can call me Hatchy." he put his hat back up on his head. "Welcome to your new home." When they were done presenting themselves Jon and Hatchworth immediately wanted to show Rosé around the house and play with her.  
-It's so fun to have a little sister!" Jon said, jumping a little. Hatchworth looked as happy as him. Rose' looked at Peter, still unsure. He nodded calmly towards her for her that she could go with them. She walked after Jon and the others, Jon walked close to her like he had known her for years. She would be fine. Peter took the bag with the body he had with him and walked down to his laboratory. He laid the bag on the table and opened it. The boy's pale face stared up at the ceiling. He was going to fix him again somehow, how much it would ever take. He had never thought of doing a cyborg, but it wouldn’t hurt to try if it did save the boy...


	3. The awakening

He worked on the boy for days, for long hours and sometimes whole nights. He felt tired and barely ate. The Walter workers were worried, the robots too but he reassured them that he was fine and everything would soon be back to normal. Rosé got around slowly. She was still nervous, mostly around the few humans around here. She would curl up when it was loud noises and didn't speak much, and would stutter sometimes when she did talk. Her voice box must be broken and sometimes she would freeze in places or shake, but Peter and wanted to wait until she was more comfortable around them to truly fix her. Michael Reed and Matthew Smith, who they mostly called Matt, would come and visit and quickly became fond of little Rosé as well and let her take her time to get used to them. Mikael wanted to help Peter as well with Rosé when he saw her slight malfunctioning but quickly realized she wasn’t like the others, she would get stiff and scared when he got to close. The other robots would always help her when she had experienced one of her malfunctioning episodes and got scared and confused. Peter was glad his robots was so kind to her. She had come very close to Rabbit and Jon, she was allowed to sleep in Rabbit’s room until she got an own room to sleep in. Rabbit and the Walter workers had even made a new white hoodie for her. She, Rabbit and Jon would play and mess around, annoying Spine and such. He would let her sit with him when he was reading but otherwise she keeps distance from him. Hatchworth had showed her their instruments and some songs. She would sometimes play on their old piano in the living room. Despite her scars and shyness, she was recovering well. Peter had now finished his new work. The robot looked precisely like the boy, had long dreadlocks and a black coat, under was a death skull T-shirt and he had black jeans. But his face was pure white iron and had a black beard on his chin, like a goat beard. There was a pounding human heart in his chest. Peter breathed in and out before he got ready to power him up. Please work, he thought before he turned him on. He slowly began to open his ice blue optics....

He opened his eyes and found himself in some sort of...laboratory? It must be with all those tables with strange instruments that looked a little like those from a hospital. But it was dark and silent. What the hell happened? He didn't remember, or...he did remember pain and then darkness. But why was he here? And why did he feel so weird? His first instinct was to look at his hand. It was no human hand but a robot hand. "The heck?"  
-It's alright." he heard a voice beside him say. There was a man, probably in his 30s or 40s with a white laboratory coat and instead of a face was what looked like a keyhole mask.  
-I'm Peter Walter. You have gone thru an accident. But I've fixed you." I did it. He thought. The robot looked around and saw the mirror by the wall and walked towards it. Peter had to look up when the robot stood up, he was so tall, even taller than The Spine. The boy looked himself over. He really was a robot! Peter watched as he backed away a little, afraid.  
-I-It was the only way to save you..." he said carefully. The boy looked at his hands again and moved them a little to see how they worked.  
-What's the last thing you remember?" the boy thought for a moment.  
-Nothing, really...I just remember pain and then blackness."  
-Nothing more?" Peter asked, worry building up in his chest. The boy looked at him with those cold eyes, confusion written over them now.  
-No." he said "Only that I'm 19 years old and such." this time more casually. Peter sat down. He didn't remember anything. What had he done wrong? He had failed, the boy's parents would only become more broken if they found this out.  
-Do you remember your name?" he didn’t look at the robot when he said this, just looked at the wall before him with a frown on his face, his voice were low.  
-Nope." The boy answered.  
-I'll give you a name then, if you want to." he pondered for a moment. His eyes soon stopped at the boy's long silver dreadlocks.  
-What about...Dread?"  
-Sounds cool." he answered.  
Drawings of Dread and Rosé I made:  
[](https://ibb.co/gu0PDT)

[](https://ibb.co/diWmSo)   
[mint delete account](https://deleteacc.com/mint)   



	4. A new home

-What even is this place, Mr Peter?" Dread asked as they walked out from the laboratory. -

-It's Walter Manor, your new home."

-It sure looks cool." Dread mumbled as he looked around the big building, his optics blinked in interest.

-It sure is..." Peter said as he wondered if Dread even remembered little Rosé he had saved days ago...

-Are there more robots like me?" Dread asked, shaking Peter from his thoughts.

-Yes, there are. Do you want to meet them?"

-Sure, whatever.' Dread answered as he shrugged and then followed him. Peter noticed when he looked back at Dread how he limped ever so slightly with one foot. They found Rabbit, Rosé and Jon walking by but Rosé hid behind Rabbit when she saw them. Jon ran towards Dread.

-Wow, he looks so cool, Peter!" he said with excitement as he touched Dread's shoulders, dreadlocks and studied his clothes. Dread backed away slightly, surprised by the sudden contact.

-Oh, sorry! I got a little exited!' Jon said, giving him some space, still smiling and fiddled with his hands. 'I'm Jon and here's my sister Rabbit!" Rabbit nodded and touched her hat in greeting. Dread nodded back. His working heart pumped in his chest as he looked at her. She was pretty cute.

-I'm Dread." he said, collecting himself.

-It suits you." Rabbit said. Peter was about to ask where Rosé was when Rabbit looked down a little behind her.

-It's ok, bestie. He's nice." Rose's head was now visible. She looked up at the tall robot before her that had once been the boy that had saved her life. Dread looked down at her and his optics got a little bigger and he froze. Rosé started to shake a little. Was he angry at her? Did he remember her?

-This is our little sister, Rosé." Rabbit said, not realizing what was happening.

When Dread saw the tiny, broken robot close to Rabbit he suddenly froze in his place. Those optics with fear and nervousness was so familiar. It was the robot he had saved. How and when, he didn't fully remember, his mind was still foggy. But it was clear that he had saved her from danger and he had ended up in this body. He shook himself from his chock and knelt down before her.

-Hi there, Rosé." he said gently. She still didn't say anything, shy like a little human child. He carefully lifted his hand for her but she shied away again. He patiently waited for her to calm down. She peeked at him again and then at his hand. She looked at the other robots and Peter and felt a little safer. She took some small steps closer to him. She had her hoodie up so he didn't see much of her face. She reached out and touched his hand and Dread shock her small hand slightly before he let her study him.

-Rosé, huh? That's a nice name." he said. She just looked up at him at first before she nodded slightly and hunched her shoulders as she got shy again. He smiled at this.

-Spine, Hatchy!" Jon screamed as he ran to find them.

"Our new brother is done!"

-Brother?" Dread said to himself.

-Yes, everyone her is technically siblings. You and Rosé are the newest and youngest." Peter explained before the others came too meet Dread. Michael, Matt, Chelsea and Camille as well.

-Whoa! He's even taller than you, Spine!" Hatchy laughed. Spine froze and looked up at him, his expression was priceless and Dread could barely hold back a laugh.

-Well then." Spine said and cleared his throat. 'You're Dread then?'

-Yup.' Michael looked him up and down.

-You did a good job, Peter.” He said with a smile.

-You look kind of cool, what's that style called again?" Hatchy asked curiously as he walked over to Dread as well, pointing at his strange coat.

-Goth." he simply said. 'I like goth metal and the color black."

-Is there something more you like?" Jon asked.

-Well...I like graveyards and horror novels. I also like goth movies" Dread said. Some looked confused while the others looked at him with interest.

-How so, Dread?' Peter asked curiously.

-I don't know...I just do. And it's quiet and calm in graveyards. And kind of...beautiful, like black roses.'

-Yes, indeed...' Peter said softly, deep in thought again. Dread seemed to like the same things he did as a human. Peter leaved the robots alone a bit for them to talk as he heard his phone ring in his pocket. It was Dread's parents. He swallowed. What should he tell them? That the experiment didn't work and Dread was still dead? Or that he was alive, but didn't remember anything? It was a bad or worse choice he had to pick. But... shouldn't he tell them the truth? No, he just couldn't. He also couldn't tell Dread the truth, he was already confused as it was and the thought of a robot going back to human life without memories, alone with devastated parents...no. It was stupid but he just couldn't. He answered the phone to tell them the fake news...

_-I'm sorry, but he wouldn't wake up. He is gone...'_

_-_ _No...it can't be...'_

_-I'm sorry...'_

_-No! My dear son!'_

_He couldn’t take this back now...ever..._

 


	5. Dread's first night

The night finally came to the manor and the robots drank their night oil, Rosé and Dread too. They sat beside each other in the kitchen. Rose' drank like she had never been drinking oil before which amused the others. Dread drank slowly, it wasn't the best but not the worst either. The other robots had told them a little of when they had been to war long ago, how they were created and about how they started their band 'Steam Powered Giraffe' that they had already told Rosé about, but she still listened like she had heard it for the first time, especially about when they had been to war before they started their music career. Walter worker Chelsea came over.  
-We don't really have rooms for you two, so Rosé sleeps with Rabbit, you Dread can also share a room with someone if you want to. " she said kindly.  
-Sounds good." Dread said with a shrug.  
-Dread can stay in my room!' Jon quikly said, standing up.  
-Sure." Dread said.  
-That's settled then.' Chelsea said.  
Rosé followed Rabbit to her room. It was a sticker of a robot-rabbit on the door of course. It was a small and cosy room. It was a bed by the right wall and a closet by the corner. One big violet carpet covered most of the floor, there was a white pirate death skull with heart formed eyes in the middle of it. And by the wall on the left side was a table with papers and a sewing machine that Rosé that had caught Rose's interest the first time she got introduced to the room. A small picture of a cowboy hat with some ropes beside it was there too. And last was a window. The walls had some sort of old pink color, Rabbit sure liked pink. The pyjamas Rosé was using was grey and a little too big but she didn’t mind at all. They didn’t have a bed for her so she slept in a blue sleeping bag. She was grateful anyway, she had never slept in a bed or even a sleeping bag before. She laid down as Rabbit closed the door and laid down in her own bed beside her. Rosé curled up. It felt nice. She smiled ever so slightly.  
-G' night, bestie!' Rabbit said.  
-Goodnight...'  
  
-Here is my room!" Jon said as he led Dread to a door that wasn't far away from Rabbit's and Rose's room. His room was a mess. It laid some toys everywhere and empty Pepsi bottles by an already full trashcan and he had drawn a smile face on the wall by the bed. It was a bunk bed, he's was at the top, it even stood Jon with big letters on it. Jon's bed blankets were covered in small cars and some cactus, western style. The pillow only had a brown color. The bottom one was only a grey color, the pillow too. There was a small TV by the corner beside a small toy box with a picture of a cowboy riding a horse on. Cute.  
-You guys like cowboys I see...' Dread said, motioned with his head towards the box. Jon looked at it.  
-Oh, yes! They are cool! Pirates are cool to, but not as much as cowboys thought'.' he said. "Rabbit, Hatchy and Spine likes them too, we play sometimes that we are cowboys! But Hatchy doesn't really like to play cowboys that fight.' which was true. While the others "flighted" or tried to act cool, Hatchy just wanted everyone to be friends and not fight. He was always a little too nice even if it was just a game.  
"Rabbit" Dread thought and was lost for a moment but quickly shock himself and continued to look around the room. An old PlayStation 2 was by the TV. Dread hadn't expected Jon to even have games but he had been wrong then.  
-You can sleep on the bottom bed. Spine used to sleep here when I was younger and had nightmares but you can take it now.' he said.  
-Thank you." Dread said and chose a black T-shirt and cargo shorts to sleep in. The bed was a little too small for him so he had to curl up and his knees was barely in the bed at all. He just laid there, wondering a while for himself. Who was he, really? What really had he saved Rosé from? Why did Peter look at him strangely sometimes and ask him questions? He thought over and over but didn't know the answer, he maybe will find it out in the morning. What he did know was that he was gonna continue protect little Rosé. Before he fell asleep he thought he saw something, like a shadow by the corner that somehow looked...familiar, he slightly jumped. But it disappeared right when he had noticed it. He must have imagined it, he was just tired.

In the middle of the night Rosé woke up with a weak scream that was barely heard because of her broken voice box. She had been having one of those nightmares again. She shock violently, making her small body hurt, and whimpered, pressing herself against the pillow to hide her cries of fear and pain. Hopefully Rabbit didn't hear her. She was fast asleep, good. She didn't want her to see her weak like this, they would throw her out too, like her creators and foster mistress. _Weak, stupid, freak, mistake!_ the voices from her dream echoed in her head. She cried until she fell asleep again, and not a peaceful sleep.


	6. Morning

Dread woke up from the lights that shined thru the window. He moaned in irritation and sat up. Steam escaped from his mouth and some parts of his body to cool him down, he was surprised at first but relaxed, he was a robot now. It felt a little strange in this body and then have a human heart that pounded in his chest. His optics scanned the room. He looked up and heard Jon was still sleeping soundly. He stood up to dress himself. They didn't really have new clothes for him yet so he took his goth coat and black trousers. He then noticed his walking stick that had been laying by his clothes. He took it. It felt nice to hold it again. He stroked the giraffe head on the top and remembered what the others called their band and thought it was ironic. Suddenly Jon woke up with a start and jumped down so quick that Dread was afraid he had hurt himself at first. But he was alright and was soon also ready to go out and get breakfast. He was first out and Dread followed him towards the kitchen. Rabbit and Rosé came from their room as well and Dread stopped for a moment. Jon smirked up at him.  
-She's cute, huh?" he said while looking towards Rabbit with a playful smile.   
-What? No way! I was just...'  
-Starring at her." Jon laughed. "Don't just stand and stare at her, talk!" he pushed him towards the two girl robots. Rabbit smiled.  
-Good morning, you two." she said.  
-Morning Rabbit and Rosé!" Jon said.  
-Morning...' Dread said simply.   
-You can better.' Jon said and pushed him playfully. Dread pushed him back. Rosé looked at them back and forth while Rabbit just shook her head, smiling.  
-Are you two just gonna fight or get some oil? they stopped.   
-You're right, come on sleepyheads!' Jon said and ran before them with a speed Dread had never seen before. He looked down at Rosé. She was still in her white pyjamas.  
-Cool pyjamas, Rosé.' he said smiling slightly.  
-Thanks.' she said, it was weak and shy but it was a process, she started to slowly talk more and more each day. They walked into the kitchen where the others where. Jon looked at Dread for him to say something more to Rabbit. He cleared his throat before he tried again.  
-Do you and Rosé want to...sit beside me? it just came out from him and he regret it one's the words had escaped from his mouth. But Rabbit just smiled kindly at him.  
-Sure.' she said. Dread's heart skipped a beat. He had not been prepared for that. And he was also not prepared to see a little doll locking thing come towards him when they sat down. It was a small wool doll with black eyes and a black bandana.  
-And who may you be, sir? he said and despite his lack of expression Dread could tell he was serious, his voice was high and he crossed his tiny arms.  
-Uh, and who are you? Dread asked.  
-Don't you know who I am!? the doll said even louder but Dread held his stone face while Rosé leaned closer to Rabbit.  
-I am famous over the whole YouTube!'  
-And?'  
Hatchy, Jon and Michael seemed to try to hold back their laughs while Spine just looked annoyed.  
-And what is that supposed to mean?  
-Weren't you supposed to be the smart one? I don't know you, I don't really watch YouTube."  
-Have you been living under a rock your whole life or what!? Everyone knows YouTube, Smartass! Who are you even?'  
-Name's Dread'  
-That's even worse than when Spine got his name! And that's something!' Spine now looked at him with tired eyes but his expression stayed neutral.  
-Will you stop your screaming, please, some of us are not deaf...' He said.  
-Yet.' Jon finished, making Hatchworth snicker.   
-And you shut up, Jonnyboy!' the doll screamed.   
-Relax, Lil´ Steve, you're scaring our new sister.' Rabbit said calmly.   
-Who!? The doll, who Dread now knew was named Lil' Steve, said, still a little too loud, and then looked down at the small covering robot beside Rabbit. Dread patted Rose's shoulder.  
-It's ok, Rosé. You want to say hello to the "Little fuck Steve."?' he joked. Rosé smiled unlike Steve who looked like a monster where he stood and stared at him.  
-What the heck did you just call me, huh! Who do you think you are?' he screamed, pointing angrily at him.  
-I could ask you the same.'   
-Ok, now Steve, I think you two have meet each other enough now' Peter said and picked up Lil' Steve and put him on the ground. He mumbled quietly to himself, still pissed. Peter looked at Rosé and Dread.  
-So, how are you today?  
-Just good.' Dread said, leaning back a little. Rosé looked down a little.  
-Good...' she said. Peter nodded but felt a little sad that she was still scared and didn't fully trust him. After all she had been thru, she had every right to be scared.


	7. Hide and seek

-So, what do you guys want to do?' Rabbit asked Rosé and Dread. They seemed to think but no answer came from them.

-Maybe hide and seek! Jon suggested. Rosé seemed to like the idea, but not Dread.

-I'm not really into games.' he said.

-Aw, come on, it will be fun!" they begged. He was about to say no again but when he saw Rose's face he stopped. She looked at him pleadingly like the others, her eyes, which were big and shined slightly, could possibly stop a storm if she wanted. Ok, he would do it, for her.

-Alright then...' he sighed.

-Sweet! Since you were the last one in you will count!' Jon said, patting his shoulder a little too hard. Dread furrowed his eyebrows strangely.

-You kidding?

-Nope, count to 50 now.' He did as he was told but not without another sigh. He leaned his head against the wall and closed his eyes to count. Jon was fast and soon disappeared from the room in a flash. Rosé followed Rabbit. Rabbit seemed to know a good hiding spot. They almost ran onto The Spine who was on a walk in the big corridors.

-Oh, sorry." Rabbit laughed. Spine had his neutral expression as he crossed his arms over his chest.

-Rabbit, what have Peter told you abou-'

-"No running in the corridors" yep, I know bro!' Rabbit said pointing her finger towards the ceiling dramatically. Rosé smiled at Rabbit's childish behaviour. They soon entered a room where they seemed to store stage clothes and such.

-Here, Rosé. You can hide in here.' Rabbit said and led her to a big bureau made of wood. Rosé was big enough to fit. 'I'm going to hide in the closet over there.' she said and pointed to a closet not far away so Rosé wouldn't feel nervous. Rosé nodded before she hid in the bureau and closed after her. It was dark and only a tiny light from the small crack came in. She had never really liked the dark but remembered Rabbit was not far away in case something happened... her now big sister. Rosé for the first time felt happy and sad at the same time. She had never had a brother or sister, now she had both brothers and a sister and she felt happy, but worry had always been buried inside of her since the first day she came here. What if she did something wrong or they just didn't want her anymore, got tired of her? She had experienced that twice, false safety, and once she felt home they always threw her out and she had to run away from "Home". What if this was no difference? As the minutes past it was as if the shadows took form, and tried take her away, into the darkness. And she was alone. _'No, I'm not alone...'_ she tried to tell herself as she started to shake, _'Rabbit is here..."_. Much later she heard steps far away, Dread's footsteps.  
She hated herself for being so weak and scared but she couldn't help it. When she listened to the steps a memory flashed before her eyes as he came closer to her hiding spot.

_She had done something wrong again, she just knew it. The way her mistress steps sounded when she walked up the stairs...she was mad, angry. Rosé curled up as the steps came closer and soon the door opened and she was prepared for her punishment..._

It disappeared as fast as it had come but she felt oil drip from her eyes. She wiped it away quickly when she heard Dread's steps in the room, she won't let him know she cried. He opened the bureau and he looked at her with kind eyes.  
-Found you, Rosé.' he said, then he noticed some oil drips Rosé hadn't manage to wipe away, he frowned. She tried to smile reassuringly. He still looked at her with a frown on his face as she jumped down to the floor again and didn't look up at him.  
-You ok? he asked. She nodded.  
-Yes.'  
He knew something was wrong but didn't want to force her to tell him.  
-Ok, then. Let's find the others...' she followed behind him as they searched and found Rabbit and Jon. But he was still worried about Rosé even afterwards, what had made her so sad and scared all of a sudden? Her eyes clearly told him she must have been thru something awful in the past.


	8. The talk

After some hours of hide and seek they got a little bored and wondered what they would play now. Dread and Rosé had to drink some oil after all playing and Jon took some Pepsi despite that Spine and the humans had told him it wasn't good for him to drink too much. Spine was reading something in the living room, a fire was burning by the fireplace.  
-Do you never get tired of playing around? he asked as they walked in, not looking away from the book.  
-Says the one who just reads all day, I would get bored after one minute!' Jon said.  
-Please, bro, can't you play with us like we used to do and like we do on stage? Rabbit pleaded.  
-I wonder that too actually.' Hatchworth said who was playing a little with one of their guitars and had listened to their conversation.   
-I'm too old to play silly-' Spine began but was interrupted by Rabbit who threw a pillow at him, he almost dropped his book but caught it in time.  
-Ha, you're hit! Rabbit laughed. Jon and Rosé snickered, even Dread smiled at this. At first Spine just looked pissed before he lifted the pillow from the ground and smirked as well.  
-Oh, yea?' he said and threw it back.  
-To slow! Rabbit said and caught it mid-air. Jon walked over to Spine and gave him another pillow.  
-Come on, old man!' Rabbit said and stood in a dramatic pose and gestured with her finger for him to give his all. Spine smiled and stood up.  
-Hands up, cowboy!' he said and they started to throw pillows at each other. He wasn't as quick like Rabbit and the others but he was good at throwing the pillows and barely ever missed. Even Hatchworth joined the game.   
-What on earth are you doing? they heard Lil' Steve say from the doorway and almost got hit by one of the pillows in response.  
-Playing! Jon said.  
-What kind of game is this?  
-Cowboy-pillow fighting!'  
-Sounds as silly as it looks.' Steve said and crossed his small arms.  
-Ok, calm down now.' Peter finally said, walking up behind Lil' Steve and stood beside him. "Remember you have a show in two days, don't tire yourself out, please."  
-Relax, Pappy. We were about to stop." Rabbit said casually.  
-Good." he said and started to walk away and Dread went over to his side.  
-I need to speak to you, Sir."  
-About what, son? he asked, with slight concern when he heard the seriousness in Dread’s voice, as they walked away a bit so the others wouldn't hear.  
-Well... when we were playing hide and seek it looked like Rosé had been crying, but didn't want to talk about it." Peter listened carefully and frowned at this as well.  
-I'm...I'm worried about her. I must ask you, what happened to her? Why is she so scared?"  
Peter knew he was serious but not even Peter knew the whole story of Rosé, he didn't want to think about what she had been thru either  
-I don't really know either...but when you had saved her she had been attacked by three men, but I think unfortunately she has been thru even more awful things before that happened, treated very poorly by her owners" Dread's eyes showed sorrow and confusion, while his working heart was filled with anger.  
-But why? What have she ever done to deserve it?" they looked towards the living room where Rosé was now sitting close to the fireplace and just looked at the smal fire flames before her, she smiled and her eyes were filled with curiasity.  
-I don't know, Son... and we can't force her to tell us."  
-No... I understand that, Peter. I just wish I could do something to help her."  
-Me too Dread, me too..."


	9. The road trip

Everything went quiet when everyone had gone to bed, tomorrow they would drive to Los Angeles to perform on a Cafe'. It was the first time Rosé and Dread were going with them on a performing and Rosé off course was nervous, Peter knew that too but knew he couldn't just leave Dread and Rosé all alone in the mansion. He hoped everything was going to be fine. Rabbit had noticed that Rosé took time to go to sleep, as if she was scared to sleep, but didn't say anything. When Rabbit heard small whimpers in the middle of the night she understood, Rosé was having nightmares. But why hadn't she told her before? She got up and went over to her side, she was curled up in her sleeping bag and crying softly.  
-It was just a bad dream, Bestie'. It's ok." but she only cried even more. She sat down beside her to make her feel safe and at first it only seemed to make everything worse. But the thing that made Rabbit's core really hurt was when she cried "I'm sorry, I'm sorry" as if she had done something and was being scold.  
-You haven't done anything wrong..."  
Rosé shock violently while Rabbit laid down and rubbed her small back. She stayed by her side the rest of the night until she finally fell asleep again.

The next day Rabbit woke up long before Rosé who was still sleeping rather peacefully now. Rabbit didn't want to wake her up just yet and carefully stood up sneaked out from the room so she wouldn't disturb her and went to see if the others were awake as well. The first thing she noticed was that they were packing things for the road trip to Los Angeles. Jon had a giant bag and seemed to only pack Pepsi, a drawing pad, pencils and some costumes he even tried to hide all the Pepsi under one of them so they others wouldn't see. Dread off course had noticed this but decided to not tell the others. He himself didn't really have much to pack because what could he even need when he didn't need food, shampoo, much clothes or even a toothbrush? He noticed that Rosé wasn't with Rabbit.  
-Rosé is still sleeping." Rabbit answered as if she had read his mind. "She didn't sleep very good last night.  
-Is she ok? Jon asked, looking at her with worry  
-Of course, she is just tired, Jon." Rabbit assured him, smiling. He nodded and smiled back.  
-What do you even have in that bag? she asked, tried to change the subject.  
-Oh, eh, nothing." Jon said, standing in front of his bag and trying to cover the Pepsi even more.  
-I'm not that stupid."  
-Clothes and... drinks..."  
-Pappy's gonna kill you when he finds out." Dread smiled slightly at Rabbit's words. She then looked over at him and his almost empty bag.  
-You're not having much to pack?  
-Nope."  
-Not me either really. Only my instruments."  
-Cool."

A while later Rosé began to stir. Despite her extra-long sleep, she still felt weak and tired from all the crying last night. She immediately noticed Rabbit was gone but she knew she would come back soon, she would never just leave her. She thought back to the night before, Rabbit had seen her crying despite her tries, could she never do anything right? Now they would know how weak she really is, a waste of time. No, they are not like that... the door slowly opened and instead of Rabbit it was Dread who walked in.  
-Hey, Rosé. You awake? We will be going soon." she nodded and stood up and went to put her clothes on. He could clearly see she hadn't been sleeping well, her eyes were a little darker color then usual and she walked pretty slow. She put on her hoodie and trousers and Dread helped her to pack her pyjamas and an extra hoodie in a tiny bag. She drank some morning oil before they walked to the others that was gathering in the hall and some was already by their mini touring bus and laid their bags inside. Their Sound Engineer Steve was also coming with them but they would come and pick him up by his own home. Speaking of Steve, to Dread's disappointment Lil' Steve was coming along with them.  
-Seriously, he's coming to?  
-You won’t get away from him that easily" Michael joked.  
-Look who's here, the big smartass." Lil' Steve said to him when he noticed him. Dread looked down at him.  
-Hello to you too, Lil' Fuck Steve."  
-Hey!"  
-Come here now, Lil' Steve," Chelsea said and led him towards the bus despite him arguing with Michael walking beside them.  
-You two better not mess around under those few hours...." Spine sighed as he walked past him.  
-I was just joking a little." Dread said casually. Spine rolled his eyes before he went over to the bus as well. Jon came out, dragging his bag behind him.  
-You coming Rosé? he asked and looked down at her. She didn't answer right away. She just looked at the bus and everyone. She didn't really know why but felt nervous again, maybe because she had never been in a bus before or the fact they would sit for like two hours in there and everyone would be in the same place. She looked down sadly at her feet. Jon frowned when he saw her like this.  
-Come on, it will be fun." he said. "I'm sure the people there are very nice too!"  
-We know you are nervous, but it's ok, we will help you." Rabbit continued. Rosé still looked unsure. She was suddenly picked up from the ground by Dread and soon was sitting on his shoulders. Because of his height Rosé got nervous at first at how high up she was from the ground but he held her so she wouldn't fall off with a careful grip. She smiled and held into him, the others smiled.  
-Let’s go then!" Jon said and everyone went out after him. Dread had to crouch slightly so he and Rosé wouldn't hit the top of the doorframe. Peter had watched the scene and was smiling behind the keyhole mask.

Soon everyone was taking their places on the bus, Rosé between Rabbit and Dread, Chelsea and Camille beside each other, Michael on the seat beside them on the other side of the bus with Matt beside him and Hatchworth and Jon sat beside each other as Spine sat alone on the seat closest to Peter who was driving. Lil' Steve was on the other side of him in his own seat, also alone. (It looked kind of hilarious that the tiny doll had two whole seats for himself. Rosé looked towards Spine, a hint of sadness in her eyes.  
-He likes to be alone sometimes, don't worry." Rabbit reassured her. Rosé nodded in understanding. The first moments Rosé was still a little nervous but slowly relaxed and looked thru the window most of the driving. She looked fascinated by the trees, cars and humans that quickly went past. Everyone in the bus talked a little or just looked thru the windows as well, Jon would sometimes point at something they drove past, shouting “Look!” and Hatchwoth would look out with interest as well. Eventfully they came to Steve's place and he was already outside and waited for them. He greeted them kindly as he stepped into the bus.  
-What's up Peter?  
-I'm fine Steve, you too I suppose? Peter said and judging by his voice he smiled.  
-Yep, just fine!" he turned towards the others "You guys ready for the show!? most in the bus cheered and Michael and Steve high fived. Then he noticed the two new robots.  
-Oh, who might these two be?" he said when he had walked over to them.  
-Name's Dread, and this is Rosé" Dread told him.  
-Ah, I see. Nice to meet both of you." he said with a smile. "I must say I like your dreadlocks, Peter did a good job. Almost as good as mine." he touched his own dreadlocks proudly. Dread smiled back at him but Rosé got shy and curled up a little and looked down.  
-Shy little one, aren’t' ya? he joked before he sat down beside Lil' Steve.  
-Hey! That was my spot!  
-The seat was empty, Lil' Steve."  
-IT WAS ALSO MINE! NOW GET OFF!  
-To late, we are already driving again, Lil' Buddy"  
-Humph!"

After an hour Dread had managed to fall asleep. Rosé leaned against him as if she would also doze off any second. Suddenly weird noises came from his throat. Hisses and some other strange noises she had never heard before. Steam came a little from his mouth from time to time. She sat up and looked at him with worry.  
-Is he ok? she asked Rabbit. The way her small voice said it made Rabbit smile and she put a hand on her shoulder.  
-He's just sleeping, Bestie'."  
-Oh..." she studied him more. "He sounds funny."  
-Yes, he does actually! Is that really his snores? Once Rosé saw Rabbit was laughing, she smiled too. They listened at his snores and snickered. He's snores became louder and even Jon and Hatchy heard it.  
-What's all that noise coming from? Hatchy asked. The two girls pointed at Dread and he also smiled.  
-He sounds like a robot buffalo! Jon snickered.  
-QUIET DOWN! Lil' Steve screamed before Steve could stop him and Dread jumped and was wide awake.  
-Huh!? I wasn't sleeping! the others started to laugh at him again.  
-Uh, what?  
-You sounded funny in your sleep." Rosé said.  
-Well, that was embarrassing..." Dread said as he scratched his head.  
Sometime later they stopped by a small store so they could buy some snacks and just walk about a little after all the driving, Michael checked the bus just in case. The Walter girls was the first ones about to go into the store, Steve and Dread soon followed.  
-You want to come with us? he asked Rosé. She looked up at Rabbit who was with Hatchy.  
-It's alright, you have Dread with you." she said softly. Rosé nodded and followed Dread in to the store. It wasn't much to buy, mostly snacks, microwave food, cheap movies and clothes, a typical store you would just happen to drive by when you were on a road trip. But it still looked nice, luckily there wasn't many people around the store but Rosé still looked nervous as they walked by some humans. Most of them looked at the two robots. Rosé held Dread’s leg and tried to hide her face, her anxiety for humans building up.  
-They are staring at us." she said. Dread looked down at her with worry. He looked up again to meet the people’s gazes but to his surprise they were smiling kindly at them, some even looked at Rosé with pity. He smiled reassuringly.  
-They are nice, Rosé. See, they think you are cute." she looked up slightly.  
-R-really?"  
A little girl that was there with her mother pointed at her, jumping.  
-Mommy, Mommy! Can I have robots too?! Look, she's sooo cute!" her mom looked up from the fridge with fast foods to look at them.  
-No, darling. The must be very expensive." she said.  
-But mom!"  
-See?" Dread said again to the small robot. She smiled shyly. Suddenly something caught her eyes and she walked rather quickly towards where they had some clothes. Dread followed. The T-shirt she was looking at was small and black with a red rose on that looked very realistic with some glitter around it. Rose's eyes studied the rose.  
-You want it? he asked. She looked up him, her expression showed that she had not expected him to ask. "We can ask the Walter girls if we can buy it." he continued.  
-You sure?  
-Yea, I don't think they would have anything against it. It only cost like 3$." He took the shirt to ask them…  
-Off course! they answered at the same time. "It would fit her perfectly!"  
-Could I... possibly buy it myself? he asked softly.  
-Sure you can! he smiled, you could almost ask them anything and they would gladly say yes, except for Crystal Pepsi off course. He and Rosé then went to the movie corner. Steve was also there looking at the movies.  
-Could be nice to have a movie to see when we are at the hotel, right? he said to them.  
-Sure." Dread said and looked after a movie to watch as well. One movie caught his eye. It was a dark looking frame with a man with messy hair and pale face and he had scissors instead of human hands, fits the name off the movie, Edward Scissorhands.  
-Ah, that’s a good one." Steve said as he noticed the movie cover. "Long time I saw it, thought. Good choice." Dread also recognized the movie, but didn’t remember from when or where he had seen it. They all payed for the things, Dread payed the T-shirt and movie and the woman by the checkout smiled kindly at him, as if he wasn’t a robot at all in her eyes. She even said:  
-I have always thought that shirt was cute too."

They were soon on the road again and everyone was relieved when they finally reached the hotel. They split up into three rooms. Spine, Jon, Hatchworth, Dread, Michael and Rosé got one room, the Walter girls and Rabbit got one. Steve, Lil' Steve, Matt and Peter got another. They laid down their things and prepared their instruments for the show. Rosé immediately changed to her new T-shirt. It fit her perfectly. Jon and Hatchy made a "Aww" noise when they saw her, which made her shy. Hatchy patted her shoulder when he noticed this.  
-Suits you." Dread said, glad that she was happy about it too. Even Michael and Spine smiled at this. Sometime later when the humans had eaten on the hotel they were ready to start their little show. They walked to the Cafe' that wasn't far away, Rosé sat this time on Rabbit's shoulders.  
-Can you carry me on your shoulders too? Lil' Steve asked Steve from his pocket.  
-Nope."  
-Come on! I'm not heavy!  
-'Sigh' ok then." he grabbed him and sat him on his right shoulder. "There, better?  
-Wow, I'm so tall right now! he screamed and some people turned and looked at their direction.  
-Shhh!  
-Don't shush me!


	10. The show and movie time

Rosé, Peter, Lil' Steve and Dread sat down while the others prepared for the show. Steve had to record Lil' Steve for one of his videos they used to do before a show. He really didn't care for everyone staring at him or laughed, he and Lil' Steve did their thing and then the robots started. The first song was their intro 'Steam Powered Giraffe' before the song 'Fancy Shoes' started when Hatchy showed his 'new' shoes for the audience. Some laughed. Rosé also smiled thru their other songs. 'She said maybe' 'Electricity is in my soul' and 'Sound of tomorrow' when they began the song honeybee Rosé started to cry a little so Peter and Dread had to comfort her, she got a little worried when Rabbit malfunctioned in the middle of the song but when Rabbit continued as if nothing had happened and the others told her it was mostly part of the show, she smiled. Dread watched as Rabbit sang.

_Oh, Turpentine erase me whole, cause I don't want to live my life alone. Well I was waiting for you all my life..._

_Oh, Why._

_Set me free, my... Honeybee_

_Ho-ney Bee..._

She really was beautiful... he didn't care if it sounded stupid, that’s just how he felt. The hidden pain in her voice and eyes he heard made his heart pound; she was still going on anyway with the song. Many people sang along or stared in awe. Under the last songs 'Clockwork vaudeville' and 'Out in the rain' Rosé became tired and leaned against Peter. He carefully woke her up when the show was over.  
-Time to go back again, Rosé.” He said softly. As they walked towards their hotel Rabbit suddenly spoke up "Hey! You know what? Let’s have a pajamas party to end this night with, eh? Rosé, Jon, Hatchy, Michael, Steve and the Walter girls seemed to like the idea, but not Spine and the rest really.  
-Sounds fun Rabbit.” Jon said exited and jumped like a little kid.  
-Oh, lay off, Jonnyboy! What are you, a girl or what!?  
-Stop teasing each other, please.” Spine said.  
-Alright, those who wanna join can come to Jon and the others room!” Rabbit said.  
-Right…have fun guys.” Dread said.  
-Aren’t you coming?  
-Nah, I’m not that social kind I’m afraid.”  
-Please! Rosé and Jon said with pleading eyes.  
_“Oh…for the love of…”_  
-Ok, then.” He sighed. “See you later.”  
Later that evening everyone gathered around in the said room. It was a pretty small room, but it was luckily enough space for everyone. Rabbit and Jon looked thru the movies they had with them. They soon decided for “Edward Scissorhands” They all sat down. Matt, Hatchy and Spine on the small sofa, Jon sat in Spine’s lap. At first Dread thought he was going to get irritated but he actually didn’t seem to care. Steve sat in the bed with Lil’ Steve and the Walter girls. Lastly, Peter sat on a chair beside the bed. When Rabbit had put in the DVD she, Rosé, Michael and Dread sat with each other in front of the bed. Once the title sequence showed up, Rosé observed it and it looked beautiful with the snow that fell but when some robots showed up and the soft singing took place she felt sad. Rabbit thought it looked beautiful too, so did Dread and everyone else but when a dead body of an old man showed up both Jon and Rosé got scared, especially Rosé. Rabbit looked at Rosé and noticed she was a bit disturbed and put her arms around her a bit to make her feel better. And once a big, old castle showed up on a hill with that beautiful sad humming Dread almost got tears in his eyes. A woman went up to the castle and found Edward all alone and took him home to her own house and once they got the scene when Edward was struggling to put on his new clothes with those big scissor hands it looked a bit funny. It got a little laugh out of everyone. After a while they got to the baking scene in Edwards creator’s factory. Hatchy thought it looked very cool when the robots were baking the big gingerbread cookies and the old man observed them as they worked. When smiling robots was making the forms Rosé got scared when they showed their big weird smiles and looked away a bit and got closer to Dread. He looked at her and said calmly:  
-It’s Ok Rosé it’s just a movie.” When Rosé calmed down she looked at the movie again. They felt sympathy when Edward accidently scared the girl Kim, who he later felt in love with, and when his creator died before him. But otherwise it was a calm movie, he was accepted by the town and he made sculptures and hairstyles with his scissors that they loved. But when Kim’s mean boyfriend and Kim were robbing a house they tricked Edward to open the locked door. He got the blame after that and every mistake he made, the people in the town got more afraid of him. The most beautiful scene was when Kim was dancing in the snowflakes while Edward was sculpting an ice angel, smiling for once. Kim and Edward then finally got to hold each other. In the end when the town chased him away back to the castle on the mountain, her boyfriend fought him and Rosé was worried he was going to kill poor Edward, but Edward won, but the only way was to kill the boy and he fell to the ground below the castle. Edward couldn’t return to the town ever again, and Kim couldn’t stay with him. Everything was told by her older self as she told her granddaughter the story of Edward and she knew he was still up there in the castle, and thanks to him the snow fell like it had never done before. The ending song ‘Grand finale’ broke them to tears  
-Why did this have to happen to poor Edward?” Jon cried against Spine who patted his back.  
-There, there Jon, it’s just a movie." Spine said to comfort him. Lil’ Steve screamed insults at the screen at the mean people that had scared Edward away. Even Dread’s heart broke into pieces, it was the most beautiful but the saddest ending he have seen. Once the movie was over Dread got up and said:  
\- ‘Sniff’ well, goodnight everyone, sweet dreams." He took out the movie and Steve turned off the tv as the others went to bed. But Dread only got to sleep on the sofa for a bit, because apparently Rosé was still sad and went over to him with her blanket over herself.  
-C-can I sleep with you? She looked at him with a face covered in dried oil.  
-Uh… Sure why not" He then gave her some space so she could fit and once she got comfortable on the sofa beside him she said something that made him freeze and fell warm inside.  
-Thank you… you are the best big brother I ever had, goodnight.’ She fell asleep almost immediately, curled up by his side. Dread said nothing because he could barely hold back the tears. No one have ever said that to him before, or had someone done it? The back of his mind tried to remember but nothing came, only that those words were similar and made him happy. When he saw she was asleep he dared to say:  
-Thank you… and you are the best little sister I ever had. Goodnight."


	11. The watch

The gang decided to spend a little more time in Los Angeles. In the early morning the others wanted to check out more of the city, but Dread was not that type to go out much, and Rosé can’t be alone at least not the whole day, so Rabbit went to the boy's room and there Dread was, still sleeping with that robot buffalo snoring of his. She went over to him and shook him.

-Wake up sleepyhead. It’s important"  
But he did not wake up.  
-Hey time to get up now. You big buffalo." Rabbit said a bit louder.  
But he was still sleeping like a rock. Rabbit sighed and bent over his head and shouted loudly:  
-HEY!"  
And quick as a bullet Dread jumped, wide awake and almost fell of the bed.  
-What was that for Rabbit? Really?’  
-Oh, good you have woken up. Listen Dread you are going to babysit Rosé while me and the rest are going out for the the day.’  
Dread just looked at Rabbit a bit and then took a sip of oil.  
-Uh… ok I guess.  
Rosé then walked in, she was still looking a bit tired, she rubbed her eyes.  
-W-where are you going Rabbit?  
She said softly and unsure of what was going on. Rabbit looked at Rosé and bent down to her level and said nicely:  
-We are going out but d-don’t worry, friend. Dread is going to look after you, have fun.’  
Rosé teared up a bit, she did not really want Rabbit to leave. Dread wiped away her tears while Rabbit said:  
-Don’t worry, bestie. I’m not going to leave you. I will be back soon and if both of you are lucky I’m going to buy something for you.’

Then Rabbit turned to leave, both of them said goodbye. After she closed the door Dread changed his Pajamas to his normal clothes, while Rosé still had the t-shirt with the Rose on it. They thought about what they could do and Dread suddenly remembered that Jon had taken his drawing pad with him, how he managed to make it fit in the already full bag, Dread didn't know.  
-You wanna draw something, Rosé? he asked.  
-Sure." she said. They sat down in the bed to draw. Dread at first just sat for a while and wondered what he was going to draw, he didn't remember if he even could draw. But you could only know if you tried. He started to draw some lines and after just some minutes he had drawn a big gothic castle that reminded him of a church. Not perfect but nothing to complain about either.  
-Cool." Rosé said. "My turn." she started to draw, Dread watched. At first he couldn't see what it was but smiled when he realized she was drawing a picture of everyone, the drawing was surprisingly good for someone in her age. In the drawing she was with Rabbit and Dread, she was even sitting on Dread's shoulders like she used to do, she was tiny and barely reached their knees, Rabbit held a megaphone she would use in the song 'Brass goggles' Dread looked even taller than he was in reality. What really made Dread almost laugh was that she had drawn Jon beside Rabbit and to his side Steve was standing with Lil' Steve on his shoulder, Lil' Steve looked pissed. She had captured his posture amazingly and his expressive face suited him. She had written JonnyBoy under Jon's feet like Lil' Steve used to call him. Michael, Matt, Peter and The Walter girls stood with each other and Camille held a big wrench and Chelsea held a screwdriver. Mikael and Matt stood with their arms crossed and stood with thier backs against each other like in a action movie with cute smiles. Peter had his key hole mask but Rosé had drawn a small slime on him as well. Spine had his neutral expression and Hatchwoth held his hat in a greeting.  
-Nice." Dread said as he studied the picture.  
-This is for everyone." she said.  
-Cool, I'm sure the others will like it too. Can I draw you a picture too?  
She nodded. He thought for a moment before he started to draw. This one took a little longer because he was very careful. When he was done he gave it to her and she smiled. It was a big red rose, with black leaves around it. It dripped something that looked like purple blood from the rose.  
-Thank you." she said happily and Dread’s heart warmed up when he saw her smile and her eyes shined with happiness. Then they watched a few movies, the last one they watched before the others came back were Ice Age. Jon entered the room shouting:  
-We are back everyone, did anyone miss us!?' Rosé smiled and quickly got up from the bed to hug him, he lifted her up from the floor and hugged her close for long seconds. Dread walked over as well  
-Hey.' He said and Rabbit entered the room. Jon let go of Rosé and put her back to the ground  
-Hi, Bestie! Guess what? I got something for you!" she said smiling and took something out from the plastic bag she was caring.

It was a little teddy bear with a blue tie around its neck. Rosé stroked its soft head before she hugged Rabbit as well, she then showed her and Jon the picture she had drawn.  
-You are a really talented, Rose'!" Rabbit said.  
-It looks just like us." Jon said. "Show the others when they come in too." And she did just that, everyone liked it and smiled and complimented her and if robots could blush she would have gotten all red after all their words.  
-We got something for you too" Hatchworth said and gave Dread something that looked like a CD. It was a band called 'Draconian' and the album was called 'Arcane Rain Fell' and the cover showed a misty day and a big tree. Something that looked like an angel was sitting by the tree with its head in their hand, looking sad or bored.  
-We know you like this Goth stuff, so we bought it." Rabbit said.  
-Thank you, guys..." he whispered.  
-You welcome, man." Rabbit said and patted his shoulder a little too hard.  
-Alright guys, now it's soon time to drive home." Steve said after a while. Some moaned in disbelief, while the others immediately began to pack their things, Rabbit went over to the other girl’s room. The girls were the last ones to get finished while the guys and Rosé waited outside.  
-How long can it take to pack a bag!? Steve screamed.  
-They probably are putting on make up too." Steve joked and grinned at him.  
-UGH! Girls...they are so annoying!'  
-Except you, Rosé." Jon said and pattet her. She smiled a little as she held her new teddy bear.  
-What are you gonna call him? Jon asked.

-Fluffy."  
-That's cute."  
The girls finally got out.  
-Oh, sorry if you guys got to wait." Chelsea excused.  
-Nah, it's cool." Steve said.  
-No it isn't! We have waited for hours! Lil' Steve said, throwing up his hands angrily , the girls only laughed than getting offended.  
-It's not funny!

They finally got into the bus and drove towards San Diego again. Most in the bus fell asleep after all shopping, walking and the show performing. Rose' also feel asleep against Dread. Dread stayed awake and watched outside thru the window. After half an hour he felt movements against him. It was Rose' who was turning and twitching in her sleep. Her teddy had fallen to the floor. She whimpered slightly. She had one of those nightmares again. As her whimpers became louder Rabbit heard her too. Dread shook Rosé carefully to wake her up, she woke up with a start and cried a little against him.  
-It's alright Rosé..."  
-T-they hurt me, Dread. It hurt so bad..." she sobbed. He held her tighter.  
-No one is going to hurt you ever again, I promise." he said. The others looked at Rose' with worry but Dread and Rabbit gestured that she would be alright. After holding her for a while ha let go to make her face Rabbit who held up Fluffy.  
-He wants a hug too." she said. Rose' immediately took him from her hands to hug him.  
-Fluffy won’t let anyone hurt you either." Dread said softly.  
-Thanks..."


	12. The "Perfect" moment and instrument lessons

It was in the middle of the day when they came back to the Walter Manor, Steve decided to stay with them in the Manor for a while for their new show that wasn’t many weeks away. The first thing they did was to put the picture Rosé had done in a frame and hung it in the living room. It felt good to be home after some days away, especially for Dread, he didn't really like being outside anyway. When they had settled down he went to his and Jon's room to put in the new CD. The first song "A Scenery of Loss" started of pretty calm with guitar sounds, then the deep growling voice of the man singer came up. He growled some more before he sang normally and softly. The combination was dark, yet beautiful.

_The winds of a dying dream, a tempest unveiled_

_Once again arcane rain fell - old, sorrowful and so frail_

_O' those weeping times, all of my life's a lie_

_An endless torrent of anguished tears' o' behold my cry_

He continued to listen and barely heard the door open. Rabbit peaked in.  
-The new CD, huh?  
-Yea." he answered. She sat down beside him to listen a little as well and he suddenly felt uncomfortable but at the same time...he didn't want her to leave either. He couldn't help himself to look at her from time to time. Did he really dare to say it? Yes, right now he would.  
-You guys where amazing on the show by the way." he said.  
-T-t-thanks, I thought y-you didn't l-like that type of music."  
-Yeah, but you're fine actually."  
He would have hit himself in the face right now, why was communicating so damn difficult? He never got nervous, as much as he knew anyway, but having her this close made his heart beat a little faster as they listened to the music that was loud enough so they could hear each other.  
-Em, Rabbit..."  
-Yeah?  
-I... this is gonna sound stupid and all but...since the first day I came to life here, I...I-"  
-Whatcha’ ya guys doing'!?"Jon suddenly half yelled as he jumped into the room, interrupting the "perfect" moment. _Fuck_ , could it get any worse?  
-Were you...kissing?" Jon joked, his lips curled up into a giant smile that reminded Dread of a cartoon character.  
-No way! Dread screamed, standing up as the other two laughed.  
-It was just a joke!”  
-What did you w-want to tell me, Dread?" Rabbit asked again and looked up at him kindly, Jon also looked at him with big eyes, interested what he was gonna answer.  
-Eh, nothing. It's stupid, I shouldn't have had-"  
-No, it's ok."  
-No, it isn't. Sorry." Dread said as he left the room to be alone for a while. He had failed miserably. How could he think that for a moment he would dare to say it? He wasn't mad at Jon, only himself.

For the next few hours he wanted to be alone, not meet anyone, especially Rabbit. But when he heard some of the robots play in the living room on their instruments he went over. Rosé sat by the piano and played a little and Spine was sitting beside her with his guitar and helping her to play a new song. Jon was sitting by the drums and played softly on them.  
-Hey, Dread! he said.  
-Hi."  
-You know how to play drums too?  
-I think so..."  
-Wanna try? Jon asked and showed him the drum sticks. Dread went over and was soon sitting down by the drums. At first, he didn't really know what to play but then he just played around randomly, and then it turned out like a song, as if he had played drums for years, the others were surprised that he had learned in just a couple of seconds. Hatchworth had heard them and came in to the living room as well, watching him play with wonder.  
-You're really good!" Jon said.  
-Have you played before? Spine asked.  
-I don't really know actually..."  
-Sounds like you have played for years!" Jon said. Dread was flattered but also got a weird feeling that was hard to describe. Had he been a drummer in his past life or had just liked to play it? If he had learned to play he must have gone to that humans called school or even...home? A different home, but Peter have never told him about it these two months Dread had been here. Was he hiding something?

The drum solos were heard over most of the mansion. And Peter came in to look.  
-He's almost as good as me on drums, Peter! Jon said cheerfully to him, jumping a little.  
-I hear that." Peter said and smiled slightly.  
There was something about his smile again that Dread always wondered what it meant. There was something more to it. He sure knew something.  
-Peter." he said softly, laying the drumming sticks aside.  
-Yes?  
-Did I drum much before I... died? Peter looked at him in silence for a few seconds.  
-Yes."  
-But...where did I learn? Did I have a home?  
Peter knew this would come up but wished it didn't happen now. Dread waited for an answer, looked as confused as he had looked the first day he had come to life only two months ago. The other robots looked at them both with slightly worried expressions, obviously did not know what they talked about, Spine just looked up at Peter for a second as he wanted to hear the truth too but then looked away again, not wanting to get involved.  
-No, you're built just like the others but a little more special."  
-So, was I was homeless before? Dread asked, partly ignoring Peter’s question.  
-Yes..."  
-But why did you save me from my death?  
-No one can save themselves from death, but I wanted to change that...by giving you a new life, a better one." no one said anything for a moment, just looked at each other. He IS lying. Dread just knew it, he wasn’t telling the whole truth, but he decided to play along. He just nodded slightly in understanding. If Peter would not help him he will find out the truth himself. He left the living room with no other word. Walter worker Chelsea had heard everything when she had walked by and had stopped to listen.  
-Why didn't you tell him the truth? she asked Peter with a frown, tears in her eyes. He looked back at her, it was hard to read his "face" and what he was thinking. But the way he hung slightly with his head was enough for her to understand.  
-I just couldn't." he said, regret in his voice. The robots all looked at their master in disbelief at the fact he had been lying to them too. Spine had a frown and the look he gave Peter was something Peter wouldn’t forget for a long time. Spine had never thought his dear master and father would lie to his new baby brother like that.  
Rosé was worried about her big brother, she had seen that something was bothering him for some time but he never really told anyone about it until now. He was better at hiding emotions than she was. She wanted to comfort him like he would comfort her when she was upset but didn't find the courage to do it, the best she could do was to leave him alone, that used to help. He didn't really like the attention. She had sensed the tension between Dread and Peter from the beginning. She trusted Peter and the others like no other humans but also felt that he was lying, but why would he? Maybe he just did it for Dread's best? Spine saw the sadness in her eyes and patted her shoulder and smiled ever so slightly before he looked at Peter and Chelsea again.  
-They at least deserve to know." Chelsea said to Peter, looking at the robots in the room. He looked at them before he found the courage and tried to control his voice, but heard the sadness in it as he spoke again.  
-I'm sorry. I have been lying to him and you all."  
-About what, Papa? Jon asked. Peter felt he could barely utter more words when he looked at his son’s face but swallowed before he answered.  
-You know he was a human before? Well, he does have a family and all but...he doesn’t remember them. That’s why I lied." Spine looked at him with a stern face as Jon looked looked like he would cry any second.  
-I just didn't want them to see him like that, forgetting everything after his death, they would be broken. It doesn’t feel right for any of them."  
-So you think lying to them is better? Jon asked with oil dripping down from his eyes. Hatchworth patted his shoulder from behind him and Jon turned and threw himself into his brother’s arms, Hatchworth hugged him tightly while he gave Peter a look. Peter opened his mouth to say something but he had nothing more to say in defence, he closed it again.  
-You need to tell him, Peter…” Chelsea said and she was serious. Out of all people, Peter should be the one to tell Dread the truth.

That night when they went to sleep Dread barely spoke to Jon at all like he usually did and he couldn't sleep for hours. It felt like someone or something was watching.

_He closed his eyes and was meet by a bright red light and saw himself walking in a dark place, it looked like an alleyway. He heard strange noises that was like growling’s._  
_“Who the fuck are you!?” “Let's get this dude away, like that little shit!”_  
_He saw something ahead of him and he instantly ran towards it, the voices continued to taunt him. He stopped in his tracks when he saw what was laying before him. It was Rosé, all beaten up and broken, her eyes were black and not its usual baby blue color._  
_No..._  
_Oil poured down from her eyes, mouth and other holes on her body while shadows walked up behind her. They held what looked like sticks or sharp objects in their hands and they said something, but it wasn't words that came from them anymore. Just those weird growling noises._  
_-Don't fucking touch her! Dread screamed as he bent over Rose's body to protect her from the human looking shadows. But she disappeared into dark smoke when he touched her and he heard laughing. Something hit him in the back of his head and he fell forward, everything started to spin. He tried to stand but everything hurt. His body slowly got teared apart by the shadows but he felt no pain, but the fear was still there, the voices embraced him, making his head pound._

_Just die! No one will miss you! Kill, kill, kill! Die! Die!_

_The image of Rose's broken body showed up again but he couldn't move to save her._  
_-Rosé!!!"_

He woke up with a start, almost hitting his head on Jon's bed. It had just been a dream. It was still dark in the room. He lit up his optics so he could see better, no one was here of course except them, Jon was luckily still asleep. And Rosé was sleeping in Rabbit's room. Everyone was safe. He laid down again and just looked up, restless for the rest of the night.


	13. Broken rage

He didn't know why he was suddenly feeling this way but he continued to see strange things that no one else seemed to see. At first, they were small and just bugged him a little, he thought nothing of it, but it got worse for every day. He saw those figures that looked like humans around him, mostly it was three men and they held weapons in their hands. Sometimes he even saw other humans. They felt so real, like he had seen them somewhere before, but didn't remember when. Other than that, everything was as usual. The other robots and humans didn't see him so much over the days. He mostly wanted to sit alone and read books, didn't say nearly as much like Rosé, he just wanted to be alone. But he kept an eye out for Rosé off course so she wouldn’t hurt herself or when she was feeling down he would try to cheer her up and even hang out with the other robots in the process. Spine seemed to appreciate that he was quiet unlike Rabbit and Jon, but even he knew something was bothering him judging by his quietness, it wasn’t only the talk he and Peter had a few days ago that was on his mind, but Dread always reassured him that he was fine.  
The only times Dread could get on his nerves was when he and Lil' Steve argued of course, even if it wasn't personal. Dread liked that little guy, even if none of them would admit it, of course. But Dread got his own punishment from arguing with him. Ever since Jon knew how he felt about Rabbit he would tease him playfully, mostly only to make him play tag with him. He could really be a pain. But this day when he chased him in the corridors something flashed before Dread and darkness surrounded him and he heard a low and dark voice.

_What a waste…not worth anything…_

He had stopped and even backed away into the nearest wall to get away from it but remembered that it wasn't real. He closed his eyes and tried to control his breathing, when he opened them again the darkness and the voice disappeared. Jon looked back at Dread and stopped running as well.  
-What is it? tired already?"  
-N-no, I'm fine..." he said and they soon returned to the game. What the hell was that about? Those shadows and voices were even worse when he went to sleep. Some of the sentences that he heard sounded familiar, again, as if he have heard them before. Whatever they were, they kept him awake for long nights. But this time Jon caught him in the middle of the night when neither he could fall asleep.  
-How are you?" Dread almost jumped when Jon spoke from above him in the dark room.  
-Why aren't you sleeping?"  
-I could ask you the same thing." Jon said softly, but there was no childlike humour in his voice, Dread had never heard him this serious before.  
-It's nothing." Dread said as he turned to lay on his side.

_'LIAR'_ the dark voice whispered clearly in his ear, but he knew Jon didn’t hear it like he did. _'LIAR, LIAR!'_  
-Shut up." he whispered, hoped Jon didn't hear him. He was unsure if he had heard him or not when he asked:  
-Are you ok?"  
-Yes of course, I'm just not tired."  
-You know, when I couldn't sleep Spine used to talk to me or even read stories for me." Jon said. Dread knew he used to have nightmares after the war like Rabbit and Spine. It hurt a little inside Dread when he spoke about it, that the happy little Jon used to be so scared and suffer from nightmares. Spine had still always been by his and the others side, not caring for his own needs for a long time...he really was a more caring robot than Dread had thought...  
-He really is a cool dude." Dread said up to Jon.  
-The best."  
They talked more for a bit until Jon feel asleep again but Dread was still awake for a long time...

  
In the morning he looked like a ghost, his optics were heavy and he walked strangely as if his robot workings couldn't hold him up for long and he almost had to lean against his walking stick for balance. He did his best to hide it but the others almost immediately saw something was wrong with him.  
-Did you sleep at all last night?" Hatchworth asked jokingly. Dread would normally had thought it was a bit funny but not now, he was just too tired and his head had started to pound. And why did Hatchy's eyes shine...almost red like that? Must be his sick imagination that's toying with him again. He drank some oil before he went to read by of the corridors windows but the letters were hard to make out, he couldn't concentrate. He carefully laid the book aside and heard that voice again. _"Let's get this over with..."_ he looked around but didn't see anyone, except for Rosé who was standing before him with a frown on her face.  
-You ok, Dread?" she asked.  
He was silent in surprise for a moment before he collected himself.  
-Yeah, Rosy. Everything is just fine. Don't worry."  
-Ok, but Peter was worried about you too..."  
-He doesn’t have to be. I've just been tired lately, nothing more. It will get over soon."  
-G-good."  
But the next day it became worse. Almost everyone was sitting around the table and it was like usual. He sat between Rosé and Hatchworth and he was about to sit up when he heard the voices again...

_"Fucking liar!" "Let's get this over with"_

_God, couldn't they just..._ The shadows showed up before him again, with those red eyes and one was holding something in his hand.

_'Let's get this over with it, like that Little shit!"_

They continued to tease him and Rosé who was untouched by what was happening. He wanted to just get up and leave, hoping they didn't follow but he was frozen in his spot.

_'Coward, weirdo!'_

Why did he recognize those words? His heart started pounding like his head, he was scared. Couldn’t they just leave him the fuck alone!?

_'Little shit! Freak!'_

he didn't realize he was shaking in front of everyone, could only see the shadows and darkness that surrounded him, suffocating him. Shit, Shit...  
Rosé whimpered in worry when Dread started shaking violently and steam escaped from him to cool him down, as if he was overheating. Hatchworth laid a hand on his shoulder rather calmly before Peter, Matt and Michael walked over too to check on him. Dread's eyes were unfocused.  
-He's not aware of us." Hatchworth said, his own worry building up.  
-Dread?" Rosé asked with tears in her eyes. His fingers dug into the table. Rabbit and Jon quickly led her away from him in case he would get violent.  
-No! something's wrong, we must help him!"  
-We are trying, little one." Peter said. Rosé felt sadness, worry but also anger. Her disbelieving part of her told her he was lying, like all other humans did. He was just trying to make her feel safe, think everything was alright, and then destroy Dread, then her. But he had saved her and Dread after all, taking them in like family. Even if a part of her said no she wanted to trust him. Suddenly oil tears poured from Dread's eyes. He shrugged of Hatchworth and Peter from him, tried to rise up only to collapse to his knees.  
-Dread, whatever is the matte-" Peter started but stopped when Dread screamed at nothing, holding his head tightly.  
-Get out! Get away!” Matt and Michael tried to hold him still.  
-Leave me alone!"  
-Please, calm down. No one else is here." Michael tried to soothe him.  
-No! They are here!" he screamed.  
-Should we turn him of?" Matt asked, looking from Michel to Peter and then back to Michael who looked lost of what to do.  
-No don't!" Rosé screamed and ran over to Dread´s side.  
-Rosé, don't! He may hurt you!" Jon cried.  
-No, he's my friend!" she answered. She reached up to his shoulders to hold them in her small hands.  
-Dread, please, they are not real! Just ignore them! Please come back!"

He could swear he heard a voice trying to call him back to the real world. It was even more familiar, it was his little friend, sister. Even if the voices continued it was as if they slowly started to quiet down. Just ignore them, just ignore. His body calmed down slightly, his shaking less violent. The darkness also faded away and he could soon see Rose's worried but also most determent face she has ever showed before.  
This was the first time Rosé and the others had seen him cry like this. But he seemed to relax as she spoke to him. He opened his tired eyes to look at her and then a little around him. The shadows were gone, the voices too. But he soon realized something worse than the hallucinations, everyone was staring at him. Shit. He was a complete mess.  
-You almost scared us to death!' little Steve said as everyone let out soft sighs of relief.  
-Heh...sorry if I scared you, guys.' he tried to stand up again, Rosé and Rabbit helped him.  
-You ok now? Rosé asked.  
-Yes, don't worry, Rosy." He said, using her nickname, she hugged his waist.  
-What was that even about, Dread?' Hatchworth asked.  
-I-I don't know, really..."  
-What did you see, son? Peter this time.  
-It's nothing, it was probably because of lack of sleep." he tried to smile calmly, but Peter wasn't stupid, Michael also looked at him with serious eyes. He understood something was wrong. What had he meant that "They are here"? did he see glimpses from the last moments of his life? Had the human parts become stronger than the robot itself?


	14. The tree house

After the incident with Dread he didn't get as serious hallucinations again but he still looked tired and Steve and the Walter Workers were trying to think out something for everyone to do to ease everyone’s mood again while Peter was working in his laboratory, wanting to be alone. The summer was almost over and the sun would soon not shine as much anymore and the weather would become worse, and the robots will have to stay inside so they wouldn’t get hurt by the rain and other bad weathers. A day out would be perfect. It was a warm beautiful day outside and Rosé and Jon was the first one to get outside, messing around. There was a small forest nearby and Jon got the idea that they could built a tree house. Rosé also got excited by the idea.

-You guys wanna help? Jon asked the others.  
-Why not? Steve said. The Walter girls just wanted to sit in the sun and talk and relax “that boring stuff” as Lil’ Steve would put it. But Steve, Michael and Matt gladly helped the robots to start to build the tree house. But after a while of putting the tree planks together Michael and Steve started to get tired from all the heat.  
-Oh, you h-humans are sooo s-sensitive." Rabbit joked. Steve smacked her hat off but she catches it in time. On the ground Little Steve tried to lift a wood plank by his own. It worked out...well...  
-You alright there, Lil' Steve? Spine asked.  
-Yep! It's so-" he then suddenly fell backwards with the wood plank, it landed on top off him. "easy..." Spine smirked and helped him with ease to lift it instead.  
-Hey! Just because I'm small it doesn’t mean I can do nothing!" Lil' Steve pointed out, sounding a little bit sad actually.  
-No one has said that either, Lil’ Steve." Hatchworth said truthfully.  
-Right! You can help us color the tree house when it's done." Steve said.  
-Sure..." Lil' Steve said, not sounding that amused. But sure enough he was on Steve's shoulder to help him paint the outside of the house. The question, however, was what color should it be?  
-Pink or red! Rabbit said.  
-Purple..." Rosé said.  
-Black." Spine and Dread said.  
-Doesn’t matter.” Michael said.  
-Yellow.” Matt said.  
-Blue." Chelsea and Camille said who had finally joined.  
-Chocolate brown!" Jon said.  
-Orange." Hatchworth said  
-That doesn’t fit!”  
-Your color is worse!”

Rosé, Michael and Dread stayed silent while the others continued to discuss some more.  
-SHUT UP! Lil' Steve screamed. "Why can't we have all colors instead!?"  
-That's the smartest thing I have ever heard you say." Jon said. So they did that, everyone painted with their favorite color but Jon soon looked up. He smiled mischievously towards Rabbit, he had something on his mind again. He moved closer to Rabbit and before she could react he painted on her red color where she was painting. A brown spot was visible.  
-Hey." Rabbit laughed and painted over it but Jon painted it brown again and again before he painted her quickly in the face and ran off.  
-Oh! You will regret that!" she said and started chasing him around.  
-It was just a joke, Bunny!" he said.  
-Ha, I will show ya h-how to j-j-joke!"  
-Careful now-" Spine started, lifting his pointing finger in a serious manner as they ran towards him. They ran around him in one single circle and he looked at them before he continued.  
-so you don't break-" they ran away from him and they nearly made the table with the color's fall to the ground. Spine ran over and balanced it in time.  
-anything..." he finished.

The house sure looked...special with all the colors. But that was the point actually. They looked inside to figure out what they could put in there so it wouldn’t look so empty.  
-Hmm, maybe a little pillow caste to sleep in by the corner? Jon said.  
-Sounds good, what do you think, Rosé? Hatchworth asked. She was silent for a second.  
\- And some toys maybe?" she said softly.  
-Sounds like a wonderful idea! Hatchworth said with a smile.  
-And the TV! Jon continued.  
-No, forget that, Jon, no TV." Spine said.  
-Oh..."  
Dread and Rosé went to get the pillows while the other went to get more to have in the tree house. Dread easily took five at the same time. Rosé tried too but dropped one.  
-I'll take that, Rosey." he said. She smiled slightly to thank him before they went back. It looked comfy with the pillows, one of the toyboxes and the fake flower by the entrance. Jon even came with some posters to hang up. One was a drawn picture of the band and the other one was a realistic looking picture of a baby giraffe that was looked up at its mother and nuzzled her nose. They never managed to hang up that picture strait like the other one but that was the charm of it really.

Time went by fast and it started to get late and everyone got in to eat/drink dinner before the robots and Lil' Steve went back to spend the night in the tree house. Dread was the last one in. Everyone was gathered by the pile of pillows with a tablet they got from Steve. Peter had also made gloves they could use so they could use the tablet because they hadn't human fingers. Pretty smart actually. Dread was the first one to choose a vide from YouTube despite his small protests. They looked thru videos, new and old as they looked after something to see. He spotted suddenly a video with a robot that looked very similar to the others. Spine took a closer look. It was a big robot with similar red and black coloured clothes like them and a chain hung around his neck like a necklace.  
-Ah, that's Zero." he said.  
-You know him?  
-Oh, yeah. We used to hang out long time ago before he left to work on his career on his own tv series and commercials." he looked down a little and he looked sad or like he was in thought. "Who knows where he is now." he finished.  
-I miss him too." Jon said from beside Spine and hugged him carefully, trying not to touch his titanium spine as Spine leaned against his little brother and Hatchworth and Rabbit went over to his side as well, Lil’ Steve watched in silence from beside Dread, if he had expressions he would likely had shown a frown as well. Dread felt a little guilty for having brought him up, Spine seemed very upset by it.  
-I'm sorry if I-"  
-No, it's ok."  
-I'm sure he will come back again, bro." Rabbit said, patting Spine's shoulder. He smiled sadly. Dread would never had thought that his siblings who was not even half human like him had so much emotions like a human being, one could forget that they were robots. But they were built to show emotions like humans. They watched the small videos of Zero that was uploaded. Not the best quality, since the series was made in the 80s or 90s, but it was better than nothing. They were very funny to look at and Zero seemed to be a chill dude. Rosé was leaning against a big pillow beside Dread but when she got tired she curled up and laid her head on his lap. Dread froze for a second before he smiled.  
-This is the best summer I have ever had..." she said softly.  
-For us too!" Jon said happily to Dread and Rosé and patted their shoulders. "Because we meet you two and become a family!"  
-Same." Rose' said. She looked at Dread who hadn't said anything yet.  
-Yea, it's been fun to get to know you guys." he said.  
-No problem!" Rabbit said. They continued to watch many different movies until they all went to sleep. Rosé, still on Dread's lap and he was leaning against his pillow. Spine sat, leaning against the mountain of pillows but held his spine free as much as possible. Hatchworth slept with his head in his lap and Rabbit and Jon leaned against each other. Dread watched his family. This truly was a summer to remember...


	15. Rose's birthday planning

It was early in the morning when they woke up again, sleeping in the same spots. It still seemed to be good weather today as well. Rosé opened her baby blue eyes and looked at the window, that was just a hole in the wall with some cloth to cover half of it, and noticed a small spider climbing there, upwards along the wall towards freedom. She followed it's every movement until it disappeared out of site. Dread was still sleeping, not snoring this time and she didn't want to wake him yet. The others soon woke up, thought, and she followed them in to drink oil, letting Dread sleep, since he was in deep sleep anyway and usually woke up later than the others in the morning. The humans were also already awake. They all said god morning to each other as usual. Camille started to talk about her aunt and that it was her birthday today as she looked thru Facebook, or what is was called, humans used to do, Rosé never understood it. Her creators never really did that...they used to say it was just for brats and such, but Camille and Chelsea weren’t brats or bad persons, did her creators lie about that too?

-Rosé? the soft voice from Chelsea said and Rosé came back to reality and looked at her, her head tilted slightly.

-Do you know when your birthday is? Rosé just looked at her, she never expected them to ever ask her that. She looked down in thought.

-I-I don't know..."

-You don't? Chelsea asked.

-No, I have never had any." The Walter girls looked at her in pity and then looked at each other. The others around the room now also looked at her. Everyone were surprised and concerned that she had never had any, but Rosé took it that they were angry at her so she tensed up a little until Jon put a hand on her shoulder and she relaxed slightly. 

-But everyone has it." he said. "You know, when you get presents, cake and are with family and friends. Just like christmas but you are the only one getting gifts."

-M-my creators didn't think I deserved it and never even talked about it..." Rosé said softly and she looked down again sadly. Jon patted her soothingly while both sorrow and anger spread amongst the others. What kind of creators was that? And how could they just say that Rosé didn't deserve happiness like anyone else?

-Then we'll let you have one!" Hatchworth said. "Right, Chelsea and Camille? Peter? he said, looking at them, even towards Michael and Matt, they had never seen him this serious before.

-Right! Jon said before they got time to answer. "We will make the best party! Jon said and smiled reassuringly at Rosé. "You deserve it!"

-Deserves what? a tired Dread said who had just walked in and had no idea what they talked about.

-We will have a birthday party for Rosé! The first and best." Jon told him.

-Cool, what do you wish for then, Rosé?" Dread asked and knelt down before her.

-Anything? She asked softly.

-Off course, little one." Peter said.

-Well...I have always wished for a rose and a small pet..." there was more off course but she didn't want to seem too greedy.

-Nice, then we will celebrate you this afternoon!" Jon said.

-You sure we can Jon?" Chelsea said.

-It's much work..." Camille said.

-Please?" Jon pleaded.

-Alrigt, we do what we can." they agreed.

Steve, Dread and Lil' Steve got the mission to get ingredients to the birthday cake and such.

-Guys, I trust you on this." Steve told them when they were at the store and gave them one of the smal piece of papers they had with them with the list for everything they needed. "Get the things for the cake, I'll take the rest, and we will meet by the checkout." Dread took the piece paper.

-Sure, no problem." 

-No! Don't leave me with this dummy! Lil' Steve said.

-Come on now, we have talked about this..."

-Alright then..."

_A few moments later_

-Ok, some cream..." Dread read aloud and looked up. The store was like a maze. They had only found strawberry’s so far.

-And how are we supposed to find it, smartass? Lil' Steve said loudly in his ear from where he sat on his shoulder.

-The signs, off course." Dread said and looked at the signs. No one was related to cream yet. Some people gave them, especially Lil' Steve weird glances. A teen boy, who looked like a badass rapper with those sweet pants that were too big, a grey t-shirt and that golden chain around his neck, walked by and looked up at him.

-And watch‘a staring at, bro!?" Lil’ Steve said, almost falling off of Dread. The boy backed off, his hands raised in surrender and walked away.

-Yeah, you better run, you coward."

-We were not supposed to fight people, Lil’ Steve."

-Huh, he started! And no one bosses over me."

-Got ya’..." Dread sighed. "Whiny." he whispered.

-Smartass!"

-"Little Fuck Steve"

-"Dready the bossy bo-" Lil' Steve started before Dread stopped so suddenly in his tracks so he fell off and grabbed a part of his coat.

-What do you think you’re-"

-Found it." Dread answered as he walked towards the cream.

-Fantastic, now what?"

-Now the rest."

Meanwhile at the toy store Spine and Rabbit stood for the toys and clothes. While Rabbit pointed and commented everything around them, as if she was the one getting presents, Spine was silent, he had no idea what kids wanted, either human or robot. And they were girls too. Rabbit joked mostly around and put a pink fairy crown on his head.

-You look cute, bro." she said.

-Mm, I can't deny that. But do you really think she would want any of...em, this? Spine asked as he took of the crown and pointed at all the doll toys and pink cars.

-I'm not sure, but I'll bet she likes whatever we give her."

-Yeah but, what if she isn't that type that likes pink and that at all?

-Oh, I didn't think of that."

-She likes to draw and such, huh?

-Yea."

-So, maybe Legos, paper and such?

-Sounds cool. Since when did you become this smart? Spine rolled his eyes, not answering. Rabbit found some paper and pencils by all the drawing stuff and noticed a small little nightlamp by the human baby corner. There were many different ones but one she really liked was the one that looked like a little white star with a happy mouth and two dots for eyes. _Rosé does get nightmares..._ _this lamp would be perfect_. Spine also thought it was cute.

-Mabey, it will help her stop her nightmares."

-She still has them? Spine asked, sympathy in his voice.

-Yes, and she doesn’t like the dark. This could help"

-Well, that was sweet of you."

-She is my little sister after all."

Meanwhile Dread and Lil' Steve had gotten all the ingredients and Dread had gotten his present for Rosé when Steve noticed something and jumped of off Dread and he quickly held out hand so he wouldn't hurt himself and set him down before he continued to walk to the checkout then he heard something hit the basket. It was two bottles. He went down to see what it was because it didn't say anything on the list about bottles.

-It's just soda! Lil' Steve said and slapped his hand away.

-You sure?

-Yea! I'm not dumb! And by the way, where's Steve? Dread looked around.

-He will soon be here I guess."

-OH! do we really have to wait for him now?" he stood up on the basket.

-HEY STEVE! COME OVER HERE, RIGHT NOW!" Dread flinched when every person close by stared at them.

-Hey! Are you trying to get every Steve in the freaking building over here?"

-Only until a Steve comes by we can go." Lil' Steve said. "STEVE!" and sure enough he showed up.

-Sorry guys, I was talking to a friend."

-Well, quit babbling now so we can go." Lil' Steve said.

-Sure, sure. You got everything?"

-Yep."

But when they payed for the things Dread struggled to not cut Lil' Steve's head off when he realized what the bottles were...

-You made us pay for freaking Monster Energy drinks?" he said a little loud outside the building.

-Well yeah, Steve maybe want's some." Lil' Steve said as he leaned back in Steve’s pocket.

-Aw, that's sweet of you." Steve said.

-Just kidding, it's for me."

-You are such a generous guy, Lil' Steve." Steve said, not offended at all.

-Can doll’s even drink?”

-YES, I CAN!”

Back at the mansion Camille, Jon, Matt and Hatchworth were putting up party ornaments and party hangings while Chelsea and Michael were with Rosé for a little walk. It worked out well at first but when Rosé and Chelsea came back again Jon wanted to try the hammer too and put something up, that went all wrong.

-Hey, you back already." Hatchworth said, trying to block Rose's sight into the kitchen.

-Can't I see now?" she asked.

-No, it must be a surprise you see-"

-Jon, put down the hammer! Now!" they heard Matt’s voice from the kitchen. Hatchworth tried to look like nothing was wrong and just stood there smiling, but flinched when they heard a loud 'Bang!' and something falling.

-Oh, Jon..." they now heard Camille’s voice.

-Is everything alright?" Chelsea asked.

-Yeah! it's going fine, just fine." Hatchwoth said before he rushed in to see if they needed help. Jon had tried to set up an ornament but missed the spike and nearly hit his finger and had flinched away in reflex and made the box with the rest of the things fall to the floor as he had backed into it, including a vase. It was a mess on the floor and Jon looked really upset.

-S-sorry, Camille, I just wanted to-"

-No, it's ok, we can clean it up." Camille said softly. She knew Jon could get a little to exited and jumpy, sometimes a little too much, but you couldn’t get that angry on him, he just couldn't help it, Matt patted his back reassuringly. They helped each other to clean up the smal mess, it wasn't that much really and there were only a few vase parts on the floor and was easy to collect, it could have been worse.

-Let me use the hammer and you can help me with just putting this up, ok? Camille said and gave him the party hangings with paper figures that looked like small zebras.

-Sure." he said, sounding happier again and this time nothing fell to the floor. The kitchen and living room was done. It hung paper animals in different colors, and the plates were in nice order on the table.

-Ok, done. Good work boys." Camille said to them.

-Yay! But where are the others? Jon asked.

-Hm, they should be here soon." Camille said and looked at the watch. It shoved half past 2.

-I can see them." Hatchworth called after he had looked thru the window for a while. The other three also looked out. Sure enough, they saw Dread, Steve and Lil' Steve were back. They had the ingredients for the cake and everything in a bag Dread was caring. Spine and Rabbit was still not home, but it wouldn't hurt to begin making the cake while they waited.

Spine and Rabbit was about to go home as well when Rabbit had noticed a bedtime story book for Rosé, she thought it looked cute with the teddy bear (Who looked a little like Rose's teddy Fluffy) that was sleeping in his bed and stars all around him on the cover. She had hurried over to it to take it with her but when she looked back Spine was gone, sheesh he was fast! She looked after him for a minute before she noticed him not too far away and hurried after him. Spine had not noticed that she had left his side and just kept walking but he did after some seconds notice that it was surprisingly quiet beside him and started to look for her as she came closer behind him.

-Uh, Rabbit? he asked before she showed up again beside him in a flash.

-Sorry bro!" He jumped slightly, he had not been prepared for that.

-Did I scare you?"

-Em, no, I was just..."

-W-were you looking f-for meee?

-Off course, we have to get home." Spine said simply. "What were you doing back there anyway?

-I saw a book that would be good for her." she showed him the book.

-Alright. But don’t wander off like that again, please."

-Whatever you say bro."

_In the laboratory_

_Peter watched as the small baby animal began to stir, he had worked on her for months now since he found her in the basement all turned off. She had stirred a couple of weeks back but only to break down again. But he was not giving up, he surely wasn't going to stop now. The robot opened its blue eyes and looked around and then at him curiously before steam escaped from its mouth and nose. She shook of some dust from her head and began to stand up..._


	16. The gifts

Chelsea, Camille and Hatchworth was finally done with the cake when the clock was 4, but Rabbit and Spine had not showed up yet. Jon and Rosé was playing in his room a little with his toys while they were waiting.  
-Do you think something has happened to Spine and Rabbit?" Rosé asked with worry.  
-No, of course not, they will soon be here. They are just a little late." Jon said reassuringly. She nodded slightly in understanding. Chelsea opened the door.  
-Alright, the cake and snacks is done." she said.  
-Sweet! Come, Rosé!" Jon said and the two hurried to the kitchen. Rosé gasped at the sight. She looked at all the party hangings with animals and how they had succumbed the table with party hats in everyone’s favourite color, the cake was on the table. It was pretty big and had a sweet white cream with strawberries on top and purple cake crystal that said 'Happy birthday, Rosé"  
She smiled. Dishes with cookies and fruit laid beside it and by the chair that was hers was a vase with white roses Peter had collected while the others had been making the cake.  
-It isn't much but..." Chelsea said, unsure what Rosé thought about it.  
-It's beautiful." Rosé said and went to hug the Walter girls and even Peter, to their surprise. She usually didn't really like psychical contact from the humans. Peter was glad, it was a process, she trusted them enough to hug them. That warmed his heart. They all sat down, except Spine and Rabbit who still wasn't home.  
-What color do you want on your birthday hat, Rosé?" Matt asked.  
-Purple."  
-Alright, we have that." Matt said smiling and let Rosé put the hat on. She smiled shyly. Just then the hall door opened, Spine and Rabbit was home just in time.  
-Lady's home." Rabbit called and showed up by the kitchen doorframe. Rose's smile grew when she saw the bags she was caring.  
-Sorry about the wait, someone had to look around more than she should." Spine said and Rabbit nudged him.  
-It wasn't that bad, it was the traffic's fault! We had to wait to cross the zebra crossing."  
-The important thing is that you’re here." Peter said.

Then everyone was gathered around the table and enjoying themselves. Rosé had never felt this happy before. If this was what parties were and made one this happy, she didn't want it to end. The cake was good, and the special oil was good too. Jon off course had Crystal Pepsi instead. "Only for this time." Chelsea had told him. Then Rosé was going to open her presents. She got to sit in Dread's lap while opening them. First she got the things from Rabbit and Spine, first the box with Legos. Rabbit and Spine explained to her what Legos was and she shined up when she understood.   
-If you want we can build something later." Rabbit said. Then it was the drawing papers and bedtime storybook and they had never seen anyone who got as happy as Rosé for getting some papers before. She looked at the book cover.  
-It looks like Fluffy." she said.  
-That's what I told him!" Rabbit said while nudging Spine again. The last one was the night lamp, Rosé loved it.  
-Thank you, Rabbit and Spine."  
-It's our pleasure, sister." Spine said with a genuinely smile. Then it was Dread's and the Steve's presents. She got a spike bracelet from Dread and she hugged him. Both the Steve's had given her a new hoodie that was black with a small version of the Reaper that held out his small arms and a text said, 'Hug me!'  
-Happy birthday, little Rosé." Steve said and then looked at Lil' Steve to say something. He had never been the sensitive one and he cleared his throat before he said:  
-Yeah, happy birthday."  
-The gift was mostly his idea too." Steve said with a smile and pointed at Lil' Steve.  
-So what?" he just said before Rosé hugged them both as well.  
-Ok, ok enough with hugs" Lil' Steve said but with a rather soft voice. Rosé giggled slightly.  
-Sorry, Lil' Steve."  
From Matt, Jon and the Walter girls she got a dreamcatcher with white and brown fake feathers and a knitted grey winter hat. Michael had even made a Piñata for her. Rosé hugged everyone in thanks.

And last but not least it was Peter's turn.  
-This is not just any gift, little one." he said as he walked over to the doorframe and called for someone and soon a head with big blue eyes showed up and everyone stared in awe. Soon it fully showed itself. It was a baby giraffe robot. Rosé was close to crying, why did Peter do this for her? The giraffe walked over to her and sniffed her and Rosé raised her hand carefully to pet it on the head.   
-Is she really mine?"  
-Yes, little one."  
Rosé continued to stroke the giraffe’s head and she nuzzled against her. Then it began to speak in a hoarse, cute voice.  
-H-hi, I'm GG the g-giraffe."  
-I'm Rosé." she answered her and GG laid down and laid her head on her lap.  
-She's so cute!" Jon said and leaned over to pet her too. Rosé couldn't help herself anymore, oily rears fell from her eyes and she sniffled.  
-Rosé?" Jon said with worry. "Are you sad?"  
-No, I just have never felt this happy before..." she sniffled. "Thank you, everyone." The rest of the day was full of games like hitting the Piñata, watching movies, playing with Rose’s new Legos and such. It soon became night, long past Rose's bedtime, but they were all still awake, Rosé was not tired a bit. She built a small tower with the Legos and a car together with GG while Hatchworth, Jon and Rabbit built own houses.   
-Isn't it time for the birthday kid to sleep?" Peter finally said.  
-Nope." she said with a smile.  
-Nope." GG mimicked.  
-Come on, can we at least show you something? One last surprise?" Hatchworth said to her and then looked at Dread. "And oh, it's a surprise for both of you." he finished.  
-Me?"  
-Yea, you, dumbass!" Lil' Steve joked. The two young bot's followed Peter, Jon and Hatchy towards the rooms they slept in. The others soon followed. Rosé peaked in and at first, she didn’t see what the surprise was but then she saw a new bed, just for her. It was small but enough for her and the bed blankets had a white and purple pattern, the pillow had just a white color and Fluffy was beside it. She immediately walked over to try and sit in it while Dread looked at his bed. It was black blankets and a big death skull on it like the pillow. The bed was long so he could fit perfectly and not having to curl up like he had to when he had slept under Jon.  
-Now you don’t have to worry that you will smack your head either!" Jon joked.  
-That's cool of you, guys."  
-Yep, me, Matt and Peter did them by ourselves." Hatchworth said prodly. Jon helped Rosé to hang up the dream catcher over her bed and Rabbit put up the sleep lamp on the wall by her bed.  
-Now you will never have bad dreams again." Jon said and patted her shoulder.  
-Thank you." Rosé said again. Small steps came closer until GG also came in to explore the bedroom. She blinked a few times.  
-B-big room." she said   
-Dread, why don't you read the book for her?" Rabbit said and pushed the book against his chest. He took it and looked at it.   
-Really?" he said.  
-Yup."  
-Why can't you?"  
-It will be more fun seeing you read it, and you do like books, right?"  
-Yea, but-"  
-Come on, don't be shy." she said and touched his shoulder, was he imaging or did he feel like an electric shock when she did it? She didn't seem to notice...  
-Spine already had to read for Jon when he was younger."  
-No, I did-"  
-Oh, sure you did! What was it, 'Cinderella', 'Black Beauty' and 'The Busy Little Squirrel'?  
-Ok, Rabbit, you got me." he said and held his hands up in surrender lazily before he turned on his heals to go.  
-Aw, come on, don't be like that!" Rabbit called. "I'll come back soon." she said and poked Dread playfully on his side and smiled. He gave an awkward smile back and noticed Jon was grinning but didn't care. The others then left them alone after saying good night and their last happy birthday's to Rosé.

He looked back at Rosé who was already laying comfortable on her new bed.   
-So, shall we read then?" Dread asked. He sat down beside her, it looked a little weird how he was bending his back and his knees almost touched his chest because the bed was so small but he didn't mind. He opened the bed time story book and was meet with small cute teddy bears that was playing.  
-So, four teddy bears, that were the bestest of friends were playing tag." _Shit, this really was a book for smal children" b_ ut he continued to read, trying to sound interested. "They had so much fun, but suddenly they heard a loud noise and behind them was a big, scary green troll." _Well, this took a little more interesting turn_. Rosé looked at the pictures, mostly at the monster.  
-He doesn’t look that scary." she said. He took an extra look at it. It was just a green troll with a long, big noise and long black hair. It had brown and torn clothes. And at last a long tail wtih a wisp at the end.  
-The small teddy bears got very scared and ran from it, they didn't know he just wanted to play..." Dread continued and the picture now showed the bears running and the troll looked really sad, a text beside it stood with small letters _"No one want's to play with me.."_

Something flashed before Dread's eyes, a memory perhaps? It was a young boy that looked like him that was all alone, sitting against a wall, crying. No one wanted to play with him either.. He ignored it and kept reading.  
-Wait!' the troll said. The smallest one stopped and looked at the scary troll. 'Please, I just want to play with you.' the troll cried. The little brave teddy walked over. 'You don’t wanna eat us?' 'No' the troll said. 'I can play with you!' the teddy said. 'You look scary but you aren't bad.'" then it showed a picture of the small teddy talking to the troll and playing with him and the others soon also joined. 'Don't judge anyone by its looks.' the end title said on the last picture. It wasn't as bad as he had thought it would be. The next story was about some baby cats that found a new home and then there was more stories mostly around talking animals or teddys. Halfway thru the book Rosé fell asleep and he smiled and closed the book and slowly got out of the bed. As he was about to go he noticed someone had been taking pictures of him reading to Rosé.  
-Seriously Jon?"


	17. Pale Tortured Electric Blue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is mostly written by my friend Viandir, so kudos to him :) the chapter's name was inspired by the song: Pale Tortured Blue by Draconian. I will leave a link in the end notes to the song if some of you are intrested to listen to it.

It was some days after Rose's birthday and Dread, who was still asleep long after the others had woken up, was slowly opening his eyes only to be meet by two blue eyes. He soon realized it was GG, and behind her was Rosé and Jon? What was going on this time? It looked like they tried hold in their laughs.  
-What? Did I snore again?  
-Face." GG said and he quickly got up to look in a mirror, they had drawn a smile with its tongue out on his cheek.  
-Ok, who was it?" he said as the others just laughed.  
-Looking for me? he heard Lil' Steve say from his bed.  
-Oh, you little..."  
-RABBIT, COME AND LOOK AT THIS!" Lil' Steve screamed and ran to find her. Dread would not let her see him like this. He ran towards the bathroom to wash it of but Rabbit got to see the smile before he managed to fully wash it off.  
-The Smile suits you." she laughed.  
-I TOLD YOU HE LOOKS HOT!" Lil' Steve said and Dread turned and looked at him, death in his eyes "OH UH!" Lil' Steve ran as fast as he could from the pissed Dread.

Rabbit joined to chase him around the mansion, they almost ran into the Walter girls and the others while they ran. Spine came walking with a newspaper in his hands and Lil' Steve ran past between his legs and he first looked confused and when he saw Dread and Rabbit come running he froze before he quickly stepped aside.  
-Sorry bro." Rabbit breathed. He shook his head in irritation before he looked back at the newspaper.  
-Kids..." It was hard to believe Rabbit was the oldest sometimes.  
-Are you doing morning exercise, Lil' Steve?" Steve joked who was sitting in the living room and watching tv with Michael who smirked as well.  
-NO, THEY ARE TRYING TO KILL ME!"  
-Sounds bad." Steve said and looked back at the tv screen.  
-GOT YA!" Dread said as he finally catches him when he was trying to get under the one or the armchairs. He held him up to give him his "punishment". Lil' Steve knew what he was thinking.  
-You wouldn't dare..." he said before Dread attacked him with a long hug.  
-Oh, hugs!" Rabbit cheered and joined the hug.  
-NO, NO MORE HUGS! STEVE, HELP ME!"  
-Nope, you seem to be doing fine, buddy."  
-Are you giving up now?" Dread asked with a smile.  
-YES, OK OK!" Lil' Steve screamed. They let go of him and he dusted himself of, disgusted.  
-Sorry, but you started it, Lil' Man."  
-Don't call me that, Big Man!" Lil' Steve said and walked off towards the fireplace to be alone.  
-That was fun." Rabbit said.  
-Sure. I don't think I have ever ran that fast."  
-You want something to drink? I sure must have something."  
-Em, sure." Dread said, suddenly getting that weird feeling again. They took some oil that had a sweet taste and sat down. Rosé and the others soon showed up too.  
-You caught him?" Jon asked.  
-Yea, we hugged him to death too!" Rabbit said.  
-Cool!"

After they were done with the oil Dread and Rosé noticed Camille and Chelsea were pulling some clothes out of Rabbit's wardrobe. It was her and the others stage clothes. They studied them to see if they needed to get fixed up and all, Rabbit also helped. Everyone seemed pretty busy this day, even Jon was calmer than usual and played music with the others. No one really had time to play anymore the rest of the day. Steve was mixstring with his DJ board with Lil' Steve by his side off course. Rosé got bored after some hours and went over to Rabbit who was in her room and working on the clothes with the sewing machine.  
-Rabbit?" she asked softly.  
-Yeah?"  
-Can we play something?" Rabbit looked at her and sighed, she looked a little sad actually.  
-No, I'm sorry, but I don't have time right now. Maybe later?" she said softly.  
-Ok..."  
The others had the same answers, that they didn't have time or were too busy. Even Jon didn't have time, but she could clearly see his hurt expression when he told her so. Poor Rosé just wanted to do something, play with somebody, or just be with someone, but everyone was busy and had mentioned they were preparing for a new show, she didn't want to disturb them. GG on the other hand found fun in everything, even a little leaf from one of the old flowers inside were fun to play with, until it broke at least and she wasn't the best choice to play tag with, she was still unsteady on her thin legs. Rosé looked thru the window, it was raining outside, the others didn't seem to like it, many thought it was boring, but she thought it was beautiful. She had never been outside when it had rained before, but she didn't want to go outside by her own...

The only ones that were left to ask were Peter and Dread. Peter himself was sitting in the small library, reading a book, Rosé shyly walked in to see what kind of book he was reading. It was about space and science.  
-Hi there, little one. What brings you here? he asked.  
-Nothing, I'm just a little bored." she answered.  
-I see."  
-I heard that the others were going on a new show?"  
-That's correct. A big one in Colorado in a few days."  
-Isn't that far away?" she didn't know much about earth and such but she knew that Colorado wasn't close to where they were.  
-Yes, many hours away, but many people want to see them so sometimes they must go far. That's why they have so much to do for the big show."  
-Oh..."  
-Have you asked Dread if he is busy?"  
-Not yet, but I will."  
-Good, little one. I'm sure he will have time."  
He was right about that, Dread always wanted to make her happy when she was sad or bored. Just then she saw Dread and Spine walking by. She quickly walked over to them and grabbed Dread's coat, to make him aware of her.  
-Greetings Rosy, is everything ok?  
-Hello there, Rosé." Spine said.  
-Hi Dread, hi Spine, I’m bored, there is nothing to do here, could we go outside please...?  
Spine looked at Rosé a bit before opening his mouth.  
\- No I’m afraid, it’s raining outside. You know it's dangerous for us."  
Rosé dropped her head a bit before saying:  
\- But it’s looks so beautiful, I’ve always wanted to be outside when it’s raining…  
Dread first looked at Rosé then Spine, he had something on his mind, of course.  
-I know what you’re thinking of Dread, and you will not take her outside, ok?"  
-Yeah whatever you say Spine..."  
Dread did know about that Rosé is sensitive, and it would kill her if too much water hit her and leaked into her inner workings. But Dread thought Rosé deserves to be out there, even if just for a minute.  
-But there is a way Spine, you see, we can use the umbrella."  
-No."  
Spine said with a determined voice, Rosé walked away from the kitchen and was heading towards her and Rabbit's room when Dread stopped her and said:  
-Listen, we are going outside, head to the door quietly and I shall get the umbrella."  
Rosé got a little smile on her face and was sneaking over to the door when Spine was in the kitchen and didn’t notice them. She was a bit nervous, but still exited. She put her shoes on and was waiting for Dread to appear. It took a while until he got to her and got his boots on. He gave the umbrella to her and said:  
-Just walk forward and close your eyes now, you will like this."

Dread opened the door quiet enough that Rosé barely heard it, when she was outside she opened her eyes… and it was beautiful, she could feel the rain, hear it, and some of it hit her clothes, that did not matter however. Dread got out now too. He could see Rosé spinning around in the yard under the rain with joy, he could not help to smile a bit at the beautiful smile she gave him, and for him the rain was relaxing as it poured down at him and he stepped out and looked at the sky, it felt like forever since he had felt the rain, it helped him calm down. Maybe a little bit too much... Rosé heard soft but loud ’Zzzip’ sound from Dread. The noise startled her a bit.  
-What was that Dread? Please tell me are you ok?  
-Yeah… I'm ok." once Dread noticed she was freezing he suggested it would be the right time get in, Rosé agreed but once they got inside however, Dread stumbled slightly and a slow, loud and dark ’Zzzoom’ sound came from him, he stod there lifeless, like he have been turned off. Some light sparks came from him.  
-D-Dread? What’s wrong? Please wake up… talk to me. Y-you’re scaring me… ’sniff’ stop it! It’s not funny…"  
Rosé started to panic, and got oily tears, Spine, Rabbit and Jon heard the sound too, Spine got to Dread first and the first thing he noticed was that Dread was cold and wet.  
\- Please don’t tell me you went outside even when i told you it could be dangerous."  
Spine was not angry, but disappointed, this was what he was afraid of. Rabbit took her hand and walked away to calm her down while Peter and the rest came to the rescue. Rosé felt regret, she could not stop sobbing. Rabbit was trying her best to comfort her and told her that this was an accident.  
\- Shhh, everything is g-going to be ok, please s-stop blaming yourself"  
-But everything is my fault, because I ’sniff’ wanted to go out… this is all I am, a mistake, a troublemaker and will always be…"  
-S-stop thinking like that! You are m-my best friend and you w-will never be a mistake. A-and I’m sorry to ok..."  
-For what?  
\- For not paying a-attention to you, I have c-caught up a whole lot of work on the new suits, I never took time to see how you were. It won’t happen again, I-I swear on our friendship, ok?  
-Ok…

Then Jon came in with speed, like always.  
-Good news, sisters, Dread is working better now, come and see if you don’t believe me!'  
Rabbit was a relieved to hear that, she asked if Rosé wanted to come and check him, but she was scared that Dread was angry at her, Rabbit walked out to the living room where Dread was lying in the sofa and Michael was checking him to make sure nothing was broken while Spine was talking to him.  
-Do you understand now why it’s too dangerous for robots do go outside when it’s raining?" Peter also seemed to look at him sternly, telling by his body language.  
-Yes, I’m sorry, and poor little Rosé had to witnessed everything… god…I wish I could take it all back,'  
Rabbit was now by Dread's side and looked down at him.  
-Do you want to see her? She is very upset about it. M-maybe it would calm her down to see you." she said.  
-Yes, please."  
Jon immediately walked to Rabbit's room. Rosé was by the corner in her room. She was still sad.  
-Rosé? Dread wants to say something nice to you, I think you will like it, c’mon, I’m here for you"  
He grabbed her by the hand, and started walking towards the living room, but once they got into the living room Rosé hid behind him. When they got in front of Dread he said with a calm voice:  
-Rosy, please do not be afraid, I want to see my best little sister."  
Rosé got close to him and laid her head on his chest and cried.  
-I thought you were ’sniff’ gone… I-I’m so sorry for making you crash, I just wanted to go outside… it will never happen again."  
-It's alright, Rosy." Dread said and hugged her. Spine's face softened.  
-It looks like you have learned something from this and I’m sorry if I sounded angry before.'  
Everyone was now happy, everyone held into each other, and was together, once it become night Rosé had fallen asleep in the sofa with Dread from all the drama.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Link to the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPQxnmzivzA


	18. Dread's real family

Dread slowly woke up, still in the sofa, with Rosé sleeping on top of him. His body didn’t hurt anymore and he sighed softly and smiled at her. Peter walked in carefully so he wouldn´t disturb the small sleeping robot.  
-Dread, I need you to come to the laboratory later" he whispered..  
-Sure thing, Peter."  
Peter leaved them alone again. Dread didn't want to wake Rosé up but he couldn't even try to get her of off him without waking her up. He shook her gently.  
-Rosé. Hey, rise and shine." she stirred and the first thing she did was to look at him with a relived expression, her eyes sparked just like a human child like they used to do when she was happy.  
-Are you better now?"  
-A little.” He said truthfully with a small smile and patted her head brotherly. ‘but Peter need to check on me, alright? I will see you later.’  
-Ok..." she said and got down to the floor so he could stand. He told her to go and drink oil with the others which she gladly did while he walked down to the laboratory. The first place he ever woke up to in this life. Peter was by one of his working tables, leaning slightly against it.  
-Hi, Dread. How are you feeling?"  
-Better." he said.  
-Good. I will just look and see so nothing is broken of damaged" Dread sat down on the edge of the table while Peter opened his dark coat to check his robot body and inner workings. As he worked Dread watched the wall before him and imagined figures running around to entertain himself. The figures were nothing from this world and could not be described. Some figures had four legs and some two, dancing around the room, running... But then he heard that infamous voice...

 _"Just die!"_  then suddenly another, softer voice.  
_"Please, come home again..."_

His eyes widened and for a second everything began to spin and spin. No, not again. He struggled to control himself while Peter didn't notice this, only saw and heard that Dread's heart pounded in his heart locket. But soon he heard his laboured breaths and looked at his face, Dread imagined he was looking at him with concern.  
-You ok?”  
He nodded and Peter continued to work while Dread was silent but his head was filled with words and images he wanted answered. He closed his eyes and swallowed.  
-Peter..." Dread's suddenly soft, weak voice surprised Peter and he looked up from his work.  
-Yes?"  
-Please, answer me truthfully..." Peter's heart skipped a beat. "Who am I really? Who is my real family?" Peter completely stopped what he was doing and just looked down in... shame? Dread turned his head more to clearly look at him.  
_I can't keep on lying anymore..._  
-Well...your real name was Brian Storm, you were 19 years old when you got killed. Your parents wanted me to give you a new life..." Dread listened closely when he spoke, when he said the last sentence he looked down slightly.  
-But...why can't I remember them and only hear them in my head?"  
-When I built you something went wrong, and most of your memory got removed." He breathed in and out softly as he laid down the wrench on the table beside him. "So you can hear their voices?" he continued.  
-Yes, I see and hear things that I recognize, but I didn't know from were. Is that my memories?"  
-It seems like that, son."  
-Why haven’t you told me this before?"  
-Because you had forgotten about them and were enough confused, and I couldn’t let them know, that would break them, especially your mom. Imagine that your family didn't remember you."  
-Yes but, you could still have told me, you probably knew I was gonna find out sooner or later."  
-Yes. What I did was cowardly, Dread. I know." Dread looked down again, clenching his fingers tightly, he was angry and confused at the same time. But he soon loosened them again. Peter really had gone thru those months, keeping this a secret, struggling to get the courage to tell him, and now the truth was coming from his mouth like the missing piece that was missing from Dread's life.  
-D-do you know them? My parents?"  
-Yes, Nora and David, but Dread-"  
-I wanna see them, even if it's just for once. Please, Peter."  
The keyhole mask with no expression looked at him for a second before the slender man let his shoulders down in defeat.  
-If that's what you want, Dread..."

The house was big and the white paint was old and dirty, more a grey color with cracks everywhere. Overgrown trees were around the garden that was still wet from the rain yesterday, it almost looked abandoned. Dread had his coat and a hat to cover him from the cold and humidity. He held his cane in a determent posture with both hands that slightly shook. Peter stood beside him in his own jacket.  
-This was your home, it has seen better days..."  
-Yeah, no doubt about that." both of them walked over to the door and knocked. Dread felt now his whole body shake as he heard steps on the other side and saw the door handle move. He would probably pass out soon again. Before him was a woman that looked to be in her late 40s, with long worn out hair and a pale face with small wrinkles, she was pretty thin and had a grey shirt on her and some grey jeans. She looked almost sick. When she saw him she froze, probably close to screaming but then she saw Peter.  
-What is _this_ Peter? Are you trying to kill me too?" she said, trying to control her scream but also sounded worn out and tired.  
-Nora, this is not what you think. Can we get inside?" she looked between him and Dread who stood in silence.  
-Sure, come in." she said and let them inside to stand in the hall, they closed the door.  
-So, who is this Peter? Or what should I ask."  
-Nora, this is your son, Brian..." her eyes got big and shined slightly like she had tears in her eyes. She looked at Dread again, doubt in her eyes before she looked back at him.  
-No, liar, you said he was dead!"  
-Please, calm down." Peter said and laid his hands on her shoulders in a calming manner.  
-You are right about one thing, I lied. I lied about everything about him. He is alive, Nora, standing right before you..."  
-No..." tears poured down her cheeks. She looked up at the tall robot before her, it really did look like her dear son.  
-Brian?"  
-M-mom..." It also sounded like him.  
-My dear son." she hugged him and he awkwardly hugged back, careful so he wouldn't crush her.  
-It really is you."  
-Yes, I guess..."  
-What's all this noise, mom?" a new voice said and a young boy, probably around Dread's age, came down the stairs. It was a boy but the way he walked reminded Dread about a girl and he had what looked like makeup on him and was wearing a black girl tank top with a wolf on and black tights. He stopped when he saw them.  
-What’s…” he began but then studied Dread for a sec. “Brian, is it you, bro?"  
-Yeah..." was this his…  
-This is your big brother/sister, Caitlyn, Brian." Peter said to him. Caitlyn walked over to him, looking up.  
-Cool." he said. "You really are back, bro."  
-Sorry if I ask but, are you a girl or boy?" Dread asked out of curiosity. The “brother” didn't look offended but surprised about the question.  
-He has lost his memory, you see." Peter explained. Caitlyn formed a small 'o' with his mouth and nodded in understanding.  
-I-I'm a unisex, I haven't a specific gender and wear mostly what I want. My real name is Cody but many call me Caitlyn " they seemed a little nervous about what Dread was gonna answer.  
-Cool." Dread said.  
-Yea, right?" Caitlyn said and patted him on the shoulder. Mom was still crying, and it wasn't just happy tears that came out.  
-What's wrong mother?" Dread asked and then noticed something...  
-And where is dad?" both Caitlyn and mom looked at him, frowns on their faces. Had he said something wrong?  
-Brian, you see..." mom tried but only broke down again.  
-He's dead, Brian..." Caitlyn continued.  
-What?"  
-I tried to tell you." Peter said sadly.  
-How, why?" Dread stuttered.  
-He took your death the hardest, Brian. He...he took his life..." Mom managed to cry.  
-I saw him cry his heart out and a few days later he was dead..." Caitlyn said softly.  
Dread took some steps back. Had he come home only to get to know that his dad was gone before he was able to see him? He turned towards Peter.  
-This is your fault!" he screamed out, feeling like he would burst any second. "If you had told me sooner this wouldn't have fucking happened!" he stormed out alone, ignored the calls after him. He didn't care anymore. He just ran and ran, he knew where he would run. The graveyard.

  
He managed to find his dad's grave. 'David Storm. 1976-2013' it was a big grey grave with some flowers by it and a candle that was long time dead. The flowers were dead too. Beside it was his own "fake" grave stone. 'Brian Storm 1994-2013'. His flowers still looked as good as new. It started to rain again a little but he didn't care and let it hit him again. What was the point anyway? He was supposed to be dead anyway...because 'You can’t escape death' after all. For the first time since they had seen 'Edward Scissorhands' real oil tears poured down from his eyes and his body began to shake. He could let himself die out in the rain, could jump in front of a car, could jump from a mountain, could smash his fist thru his chest and pull out the only thing that kept him alive...but something in the back in his mind told him no. What about Rosé? What about the others? His family? But they wouldn't care if he disappeared again, would they? No...

  
At the mansion the others were waiting for Peter and Dread's return, Peter had said that they would soon be back. But it had been too long... Spine was the most collected and just sat in the living room in silence. But inside he also started to wonder. Rosé was sitting by the window and looking for them with Jon and Hatchworth by her side. The Walter workers tried to act like normal to calm the others, Rabbit was done with the suits for the show and already started to pack them just to have something to do. GG saw that Rosé was upset and started to get nervous as well.  
-Do you think they are in trouble?" Hatchworth asked.  
-No, it's probably just traffic and such." Jon said.  
-Did they even say where they were going?"  
-No..."  
-Why wouldn't Peter tell us?" Hatchworth asked, hurt in his voice.  
-I don't know...he has been keeping secrets since Dread came to life. That's not like him..."  
-Mabey, he was just gonna fix his mistakes?"  
Spine had heard them talking and something immediately clicked for him before it hit the two naive robots. Peter was gonna show Dread his real family. The phone suddenly ringed and Chelsea answered.  
-Yes?"  
-It's Peter." he sounded very distressed, almost gasping for air as if he had been runing. "Dread is gone!"  
-What do you mean?"  
-He ran of when he realized his dad was gone. I looked in the graveyuard but he was gone." Chelsea felt her breath got stuck in her throat, the robots must have seen she was in distress, they looked at her worriedly.  
-Please, help me find him! He can't be far away, but I think he is going to do something stupid!"  
-Of course, we'll be on our way!" she hung up and hurried over to the robots and Camille, Michael, Matt and Steve followed, confusion and worry written over their faces.  
-Dread has ran off and Peter can't find him alone, me, Michael and Matt must help him find him." she turned to Camille. “He told me that Dread was not far from the graveyard"  
-We will help!" Jon said.  
-But it's to-" Michael began.  
-No! he is our brother! We will all help you find him!"  
-We will dress so we won’t get wet!" Hatchworth said. Chelsea couldn't make herself say no to them, the more people helped the better after all.  
-Ok...those who want may come.” Chelsea said.  
Camille decided to stay with Rosé, GG and Lil´ Steve to watch them and in case Dread would come back. Everyone else stood up to leave.  
-Sorry, buddy. You can't come with us." Steve said and picked up Lil' Steve from his pocket.  
-NO, I WANNA HELP! I CAN DO THAT!"  
-It's not that. I don't want you to get hurt, ok? You stay here with GG, Rosé and Camille."  
-Ok, then." he moaned. Everyone got their jackets and shoes on and went outside to the cars. Camille followed to wish them good luck.  
-Quick, we can take the back door! Fast before Camille sees us!" Lil' Steve said. Rosé really wanted to find Dread but the others had told them to stay home with Camille. But what if he really needed help? What if he was hurt?  
-Ok." she said and followed him, GG followed her too.  
-No, GG!" she whispered as she heard the door open and Camille came in.  
-Stay here! Stay!" but GG didn't listen, even if she didn't really understand what Rosé and Lil' Steve were doing she wanted to come with her friend Rosé. Rosé gave up and let the small giraffe follow them to the back door.  
-I can't reach the door handle." Lil' Steve whispered.  
-Rosé? Lil' Steve?" Camille’s voice said from the hall. They looked back in panic.  
-GG, can you reach it?" Rosé asked. GG stood fully up and got the handle with her mouth and opened it carefully.  
-Quick!"  
-Oh God, Rosé!?" Camille called, Rosé didn't know if she was just calling for them or saw them sneak out, whatever it was they had already run out in the rain to follow the others.

Rosé grabbed Steve to put him on her shoulder when GG took hold of her hoodie to put her on her back. GG ran as fast as she could with her slightly stronger legs while Rosé held into her so she wouldn't fall of and Lil' Steve held into her. But the cars had already gotten far away.  
-Shit!" Lil' Steve said.  
-What are we gonna do now?" Rosé asked.  
-They said he had been by the graveyard, it's not far away! We can start there to look for him." Lil' Steve said and GG was running while Lil' Steve told her which way to run. GG soon got tired and the ground was wet and cold, but she kept on running. A car came closer and closer and almost drove over them and almost splashed water all over them. GG got away in time.  
-MORON!" Lil' Steve screamed after it. Rosé pulled her hoodie more over her face when the rain got worse and hardly hit her in the face. She hovered slightly over GG’s head to protect her as well from the rain as much as she could. Li' Steve was in her pocket on her hoodie.  
-You two alright?" he asked, he knew they couldn't cope with too much water unlike him.  
-Yea. But I think GG's getting tired." she said and patted GG's head.  
-Ok, we can slow down for a bit." GG did just that but the rain just got worse and worse, they needed to get shelter or something to protect themselves from the rain. They noticed someone had hung some clothes in a hanger in a yard and they took what looked like blankets and hung it a little over GG. GG smiled up at Rosé in a 'Thank you'

  
Meanwhile the others had gotten to the graveyard were Peter and Dread's family was waiting. Caitlyn and Nora looked both shocked and surprised when they saw the other robots but knew they didn't have time for questions. They all split up to look for Dread, keeping contact. Just then Camille had called Chelsea on the phone, crying, and said that Rosé and the others were gone too. Could they never stop getting into trouble? Peter thought but felt guilty before the thought even came to his mind. Scolding would wait until they were found, safe and unharmed. Spine was walking with Jon, Rabbit and Steve. Jon and Rabbit was visibly worried. Jon fiddled with his hands nervously as they walked. Spine noticed this but continued walking beside Steve, taking long steps. It felt like hours before Spine felt his inner workings work uncontrollably as they tried to warm up his cold body. He held into his jacket more. Steam escaped from his neck as he turned to look at Steve.  
-Heard anything from the others, yet?" he asked.  
-Nope, haven't heard anything from them." Steve said. He looked back at Rabbit and Jon. "You alright back there? Jon?" Spine turned around when he heard the worry in Steve's voice. Jon was pressing his hands against his chest, he had even stopped walking. He was shaking and he looked down. Rabbit went to his side to check on him, Spine too when he saw that Rabbit still didn't get any reaction from him. Jon was older than Rosé and Dread but was still like a child and was not as new built like them, his body looked like it couldn't hold him up anymore. Spine put his hand on his shoulder. He felt Jon's vibrating under his palm.  
-You're shaking, Jon." he said. Still no answer. "Jon, can you hear me?" Steve looked at the three of them with worry but didn't walk over in case it would make the situation worse. Spine and Rabbit knew The Jon more than him. Jon was about to fall over but Spine and Rabbit held him up.  
-Jon?" Rabbit now asked. Jon let out a shaky "breath".  
-I'm s-scared...W-w-what i-if they are d-dead, Spine?" he managed to stutter out. Spine's core broke at his little brother's words.  
-They are not dead, Jon. We will find them, ok?"  
-I don't w-want them to die." Jon cried. "l-like Upgrade did..."  
Rabbit looked up at Spine. They rarely talked about Upgrade, it was too painful. Even if Jon was just rambling it still hurt and it still was some honesty in his words they had never heard before. Oil poured down from his eyes. He tried to say more but only stutters and no real words came from him anymore. He was way too cold, he was already glitching. They shouldn't have let him come with them. Spine held him close to him to shield him from the storm.  
-It's ok, it's ok..." he said in a calming manor.  
-S-Spine...R-Rabbit...i-it h-hurts..."  
-We must get him back." Rabbit said.  
-No... I want to help. P-please" The wind got stronger and Spine held him tighter.  
-Stay close to me." Spine said and they slowly but steady began to walk again. He felt Jon vibrate against him and he hoped he would make it...

  
_He tried to move, but his body didn't obey him. He just laid there. Dread had wanted to take his life, sit by some bushes and just let the rain take him, no one would find him for a while, would be too late to fix him again...but when he sat there he thought about the others again, about Rosé, about his family. But it was already to late, he was frozen in his place, he felt cold and alone...he heard voices nearby, he recognized them. The wind muffled most of their voices but he knew it was Spine, Steve and Rabbit that was talking. He tried again to move, scream for help, anything, but nothing happened, he gave up. He was slowly dying, he just knew it, he couldn't call for help even if he wanted to. He struggled to breath as he noticed what looked like lights far ahead, it was them, looking for him. But they came only further and further away from him. No one would find him...he closed his eyes and tried to relax as the pain become worse and his heart beat began to slow down..._  
_“Die, die, die, DIE!"_  
_the voices echoed again, screaming in his mind. And this time he chose to obey them._


	19. Homecoming

-Are you sure it's here?" Rosé asked Lil' Steve, barely audibly in the storm.  
-Yea." he said from her pocket. "I think so..." GG held her head down and walked slower and slower as her legs become overused.   
-I think I can see something." Rosé said when she noticed lights before them. When they came closer they realized it was a lantern by a stone grave.  
-We made it!" Lil' Steve said.   
-But where are the others?"   
-They must be close by, I'm sure of it!"  
They began their own search for Dread, hoping they would bump into one of the others too.   
-Urgh, I can't see anything." Lil' Steve said when the rain hit his own face. GG's blue eyes got somehow stronger, like a lamp and showed their way, they could now clearly see the stones and bushes and in front of them was the forest. Maybe he was in the forest? The thought made Rosé ill and she was worried that GG wouldn’t make it in the forest but she continued without complaining. Rosé jumped of off her so it would be easier for her to walk and she put the blankets around her head, neck and back like a cape before they continued to walk. The large trees were towering over them and it was like they reached for them with their long tree branches. It was still dark despite GG's eyes light, that also became weaker and weaker. Something blinked to the far left ahead of them and they stopped for a moment. It looked almost like...metal? Rose's core skipped a beat and she hurried towards it with her last powers. It was Dread! She bent down by his side, he was unresponsive and his eyes were closed.  
-Dread? Dread, wake up!" she said and shaked him. Oh no...  
-I-i-is he alright?" GG asked from behind her.  
-I don't know...he is not moving."  
-Is his heart ponding?" Lil' Steve asked. Rosé put a hand on his chest, she felt something moving against her small palm. He was still alive, but he needed help, fast. They couldn’t carry him by themselves. They looked around after more lights or any other sign of the others, nothing. They didn't want to leave Dread either.   
-Dread, please hold on..." Rosé whimpered and tears came from her eyes. She wiped them away, irritated, she must stay strong for him now. He had stood up for her all the time like the others, she must repay him. Save him. She sat down beside him, he was still a little warm. GG laid down as well. Her long neck laid on both Rose’s and Dread's laps. Rosé patted her head.  
-We will make it. The others will be here soon..." she said weakly. She was tired and just wanted to be in her new bed they did for her, listen to Dread or Rabbit that would read stories for her. She laid her head against Dread's shoulder. She sniffled.  
-Why did you do it, Dread? Why?" after what felt like forever she felt movement under her and a hand was on her back, rubbing it weakly.  
-Dread? Dread!" she said happily. "You are ok!"  
-What's all that noise?" Lil' Steve mumbled and peaked out from her pocket.  
Dread was only half awake and his eyes were unfocused and he struggled to breathe.  
-R-Ro-?" he stuttered.  
-Yes, it's me, Dread." she said. He was about to say something more but only to close his eyes again.  
-Light!" GG suddenly said, standing up on her shaky legs.  
-It's the others!" Lil' Steve cried out. They called after them while GG used her eyes light to guide them.  
-They will help you, Dread." Rosé said softly to him, no answer, he was frozen again.  
-No, please..."

-I see them!" Hatchworth said to Peter and Dread's family. Peter soon also noticed the blue lights, GG eyes. And Rosé was with her, Lil' Steve too. Rosé was sitting down against the tree by the bushes, Peter let out a breath of relief when he saw Dread beside her as well.  
-He needs help, Peter." Hatchworth said with worry. Peter called Steve and the others to quickly say they found them before they helped Dread and Rosé up, Peter carrying her in one arm and supported Dread with the other and Hatchworth helped him on the other side. GG followed them behind. The others were by the cars waiting. Rosé felt tears in her eyes when she saw Jon and the other robots. Spine held him in his arms and he was shaking and sobbing, Spine looked worned out as well like Rabbit. She gasped when she saw them.  
-Guys!" she ran over. "Are you ok?"  
-Yes...but Dread..." Rosé couldn't say more.  
-Dread?" Rabbit asked and touched his shoulder. "No." she cried.  
-He's alive, but barely." Peter said. "Help me get him into the car please." Rabbit immediately helped him and Hatchworth to lay him in the backseats carefully. Rosé watched helplessly and then at Jon.  
-Is he gonna be alright?" she asked, devastated to see him like this.  
-I think so” Spine said softly but she heard even he was unsure. Then everyone got into the cars, Jon, Spine, Rabbit, Rosé and Chelsea in one car, Michael, Matt, Steve and Dread in another and Peter, GG and Dread's family in their own car. Rosé was sitting in Rabbit's lap while Spine held Jon close to him. His shacking was less violent and he seemed to be asleep, Spine himself struggled to stay awake in case Jon would wake up and need help. Rosé couldn't lose two members in her new family, she just couldn't. She begged that everyone would be ok. Once they got home they put Dread on the sofa in the living room and started the fire place. Spine laid Jon in one of the armchairs. Lil' Steve finally got out of Rose's pocket.  
-You alright, Lil' Buddy?" Steve asked.  
-Yeah, feel like crap, but I'm ok."  
-Good." Steve said, patting him on the head before he looked at Rosé and GG.  
-You really shouldn't be out in a storm like this. And running away was a really bad move, especially for you Lil' Steve. What if we didn't find you in time?" he sounded serious but tried to talk calmly.  
-Sorry…” Lil’ Steve said in the softest voice he could muster and Steve smiled reassuringly at them.  
-The important thing is that you are alright.”  
He laid some blankets on everyone in the living room. GG was curled up beside Rosé on the floor close to the fire place. Spine just shook his head when Steve offered a blanket.  
-The others need it more than me."  
-But you are wet and frozen as well, Big Guy."  
-It's ok."  
-Spine." Rabbit said who was sitting in the same sofa as Dread. "Please."  
-Alright then." he said and took it. Caitlyn walked in carefully and watched the robots around the room. Their eyes landed on Rosé and GG and they walked over.  
-Is she yours?" they asked softly.  
-Yes."  
-So cute." they let GG study their hand before they patted her carefully. Rosé couldn't help but thought that the human before her looked much like Dread, but was a little shorter and looked like a girl but at the same time not.  
-Sorry, I'm Brian's, or Dread as you call him, sister and brother."  
-You are both?"  
-Yes. I'm born as a boy but with a feeling that I'm not really just one gender, so I'm both you could say." Rosé nodded. Rabbit also began to listen to them even if she didn’t take her eyes from Dread.  
-I'm Rosé."  
-That's a nice name. Who is this little girl then?"  
-GG..."  
-Alright.”  
-And that's Rabbit, Spine and Jon. And over there is Steve and Lil' Steve."   
-Where?" Caitlyn asked, looking for Lil' Steve, probably thought he was human or a robot as well. Rosé pointed at Lil' Steve who had settled down on a table, leaning against a book.  
-Oh, I thought he was lifeless."  
-I heard that!" Lil' Steve mumbled. Caitlyn smiled. Rosé smiled back.  
-Caitlyn, how was Dread as a brother when he was human?"  
-He was the best brother you could ask for. He was always there for me and others. But he got bullied often but he still tried."  
-Why did he get bullied?" Rabbit this time asked.  
-Well, some people don't like things that is unusual and what they think are "strange" you see. I got bullied too because I wanted to dress like a girl, wear dresses and such."  
-But it doesn’t look wrong to me." Rosé said, confused.  
-Some people just simply exist to judge others because they are different or special. That's why Dread always wanted to be alone, he had no friends really and he got more depressed over the years and saw himself nothing more but a thing that just is there and nothing more. Goth music helped him over much things but not fully from the shit in his life. I tried to help him but he said he didn’t want me to get involved or hurt. One day two of his bullies jumped on me and started hitting me because they knew his brother was asexual." they showed blue marks on their shoulders. Rosé had never known that humans hurt each other like that, she thought they only did that to other beings and robots.  
-But Dread saved me, he started to get more self-confidence after that and when I sometimes came home after school and cried because I was unsure of my gender, he told me he would always be by my side and would love me whatever I chosed." they looked at their brother that was still un moving on the sofa.   
-That's how he had been to me too." Rosé said. "Always been there like a brother to me."  
-You're lucky that you got him as a brother aswell." Caitlyn said and smiled. They continued to talk for a while and even if Rosé had just gotten to know them she trusted them and felt safe to tell them things and they told her about their life as well. The mother, Nora, still looked nervous to be around the robots, even when Hatchworth tried to talk to her as well and make her feel at ease, Caitlyn thought it was cute while Nora didn't know how she felt about it. But Rabbit barely heard the others as they continued to talk anymore, she was looking at Dread with worry. She was scared. What if he didn't turn back on, and what if Jon got worse? Even if Spine had told her he would be fine she still couldn't shake of that feeling. The fact that Dread had tried to kill himself scared her. That day he glitched when he let Rosé out was an accident but this wasn't. Even if she was built to feel and act like a human she would never understand why humans took their lives, she sometimes forgot Dread was more human than a machine. She wished she knew what he was thinking so she could help him...  
-Be ok soon." she whispered to his still form. "Please. I never got to know what you wanted to tell me some months ago...did you want to say you… liked me? It's not stupid, I like you too Dread, I want you to know that, even if you probably can’t hear me." she sniffled, unaware about Rosé and Caitlyn that had heard what she said.  
-I'm sure he will be fine, he's strong." Caitlyn said to her.  
-Yea..." Rabbit said softly.  
Rosé stood up and walked over to her. Rabbit sniffled and Rosé hugged her, just like Rabbit would do when she was sad. Now she was the one comforting her. Her kindness made Rabbit cry even more.  
-I'm scared..." she said. "I don't wanna lose him too..."  
-Me either."

Peter saw the two hugging robots and sighed sadly. He couldn’t stand seeing his children like this. But all they could do was to wait for Dread and Jon to wake up, hoping Michael’s little work on them when they got home would help. Peter damned himself, why had he been such a coward. This wouldn't have happened if he had just told them the truth in the beginning. He could never tell Dread how really sad he was for his actions, he wouldn’t forgive him. He looked at Nora from where he was sitting on the kitchen chair with a cup of coffee that had gotten cold long time ago. She sat on the other side of the table.  
-I'm sorry Nora, for not telling you from the start. This is my fault." she looked back at him.  
-It's...not your fault, Peter. I understand now why you didn't tell us. You just wanted what you felt was right."  
-No, your husband is dead because of my lie and Dread almost followed his footsteps."  
-He would have killed himself anyway, I was stupid and selfish that thought that giving my son a new life would make everything alright again. Death is death, and he understood it more than I did." she looked down at the table.  
-I just wanted my son back. And now I'm about to lose him again...for some reason it hurts even more." Peter wanted to say something more but couldn't come up with something and they sat in silence again until they heard screams in the living room. Peter was first to stand and hurried over to the living room. It was Rabbit, she was crying for the first time in years, and her head was on Dread's chest.  
-Please come back." she cried softly. Rosé and Caitlyn tried to calm her down. Spine had also bent down by her side even if he still looked tired. Peter walked over.  
-Rabbit, it's alright..."  
-I just want him back again, I don’t want him to die" she sniffled. "And for Jon to be ok." Peter hugged her carefully.  
-Me too, Rabbit. Me too." he hugged her in what felt like forever until she went limp and he sat her down on the sofa again to rest.  
-You should all rest." he told the others, patting Spine's shoulder. "Caitlyn, you can borrow a room if you want to."  
-Thanks, but I'll stay with them in here." they said. Peter nodded.  
-Okay. If something happens, me and the others will be close by." he said before he left them alone. Rosé had soon fallen sleep leaning against GG by the fireplace and Caitlyn in an armchair and Spine sat on the ground and leaned with his back against Jon's armchair to be close in case something happened. Caitlyn looked over their brother.   
-Goodnight and be better soon, bro. Thanks for always being there for me." they got comfortable on one of the empty armchairs and fell asleep, watching over their brother.

It was early in the morning when Spine woke up before the others. The fire was long time burned out by the fire place. Spine looked over everybody in the room. Rosé was still sleeping with GG, Dread was motionless on the sofa and Caitlyn was on the armchair. Even Lil' Steve was quiet for once. He then looked at Jon, he was also sleeping peacefully, relief filled Spine at the sight. He would be ok, but Dread sure didn't look good. He walked over and touched his shoulder to see if he would react, nothing. His heart was pounding weakly and his eyes was still closed. Rabbit was beside him, curled up by the corner because Dread filled most of the sofa from his tall form. She was also calm but she still had some dried oil from her crying last night. She was really worried, she usually didn't get worried and was the one to cheer everyone's mood. But his happy sister was now devastated. He wiped away some oil carefully from her face. She barely reacted, she was so tired. Spine still felt stiff from the rain and having to almost carry Jon most of the time last night but knew his siblings was more important and more hurt. He suddenly heard some weak noises that made him turn around. Jon was stirring and made sounds that sounded like whimpers. He walked over to his little brother and bent down. He laid a hand on his shoulder calmly and Jon opened his eyes. His eyes looked unfocused and dimmed for a minute before he fully took a look at Spine.   
-Oh, Spine, what's up? You look like garbage." his voice was weak but he managed to smile and the humour in his voice was like it has always been. Instead at getting annoyed, Spine smiled.  
-Good morning to you too." he said. Jon sat up a little more and looked around.  
-What happened? Is everyone ok?"  
-Yes, we found Dread and the others, they are sleeping."  
-Good..." Jon said and slumped back again when he had heard everything was alright.   
-Are you alright, Jon?" Spine asked, about to ask if he should go get Michael.  
-Yea, I'm good. I just feel a little… weird."  
-You are always weird, Jon." Spine joked, smiling slightly to lighten the mood. Jon smiled back.  
-You are really not good with jokes, Spine." he tried to laugh but it only made his chest hurt.   
-You're smiling at least."  
-Yes, in sympathy. But I am fine, but I really want some Pepsi now, though." Spine smile turned into his neutral expression again in slight annoyance.  
-Just kidding, bro."  
Caitlyn woke up from the brothers talking even if they tried to lower their voices. He stroked away some of their long hair from their eyes and smiled at their conversation. They had never thought that robots could show so much care for each other like humans. Jon noticed they were awake and immediately shined up like a sun.   
-Who's that?" he asked exited like a little child and tried to stand, only to fall back because his weak legs.  
-I'm Dread's brother and sister." Caitlyn said kindly.  
-Oh, both a brother and sister, cool!" he said as if it was the most common thing in the world, Caitlyn smiled at this. All their life people would tease them because of how they looked and that they were ugly but these robots was so accepting and even when they barely knew them they felt like friends hey had never had before.   
-Now, now, Jon, sit down and I'll go get some oil for you ok?"  
-I can get it" Caitlyn said quickly and stood up. "You guys has gone thru much more than me. I can get it for you."  
-Thank you" Spine said even if he didn't like to seem weak. Caitlyn walked into the kitchen to get the oil to them. It took some minutes before they found them in one of the cubicles and got some for the others as well for when they woke up.   
-Thank you, Caitlyn!" Jon said a little too loud and understood that too late.   
-HEY! I'm trying to rest here!" Lil' Steve moaned and sat up. He saw Jon. "Oh, you're awake too." he said.   
-Yup."  
-Good for you." Lil' Steve said and laid down again. He would never admit that he was happy that Jon was alright, but Jon understood that and smiled at his attitude.  
-Wait until I get better and I will give you hugs!"  
-In your dreams." Lil’ Steve mumbled. Jon began drinking his oil, a little too fast, but he couldn't help it, he felt so thirsty.  
-Whoa, Whoa!" Spine said. "Don't get oil everywhere."  
-Oh, sorry, Spine." Jon said and drank more slowly again. GG woke up and shook her head like a dog and sniffed in the air. She noticed the oil and smiled and swayed her tail. Rosé woke up by the movement and slowly sat up. GG went over to Caitlyn and jumped by their legs.  
-You hungry too, huh?" they asked and found a small bucket to pour the oil in there for her to drink. She gladly drank it. Rosé immediately noticed that Jon was awake and ran over to hug him.  
-You're ok!" she cried. He hugged back, the oil bottle almost fell to the ground.  
-I'm glad to see you too!" he said. After the hug Rosé looked over at Dread. "He hasn't woken up yet?" she asked and her face fell a little.  
-No, but he will be up running about soon enough!" Jon said and patted her head.   
-How about Rabbit?" Rosé then asked, seeing Rabbit looked even troubled in her sleep and was curling up a little more. "Is...is there something I could do for her when she wakes up? She didn't take it well last night."  
-She would be grateful for that, Rosé. What do you think would make her happier?" Jon asked. Rosé thought for herself. Mabey, she would get happier if I built something for her? She went to get her Lego box and walked back to the living room, meeting the Walter girls on the way.  
-Morning, Rosé." They said.  
-Morning, Chelsea and Camille!" Rosé said happily. They looked at the box she was caring.  
-Are you gonna built with your new Lego?" Camille asked with a warm smile.  
-Yes, for Rabbit, to make her happier!"  
-I'm sure she will like that." Chelsea said. Rosé smiled. She then sat down in the living room and began to think what Rabbit liked that she could build.  
-Can I help too?" Caitlyn asked.   
-Sure."  
-What are we gonna build?"  
-A bunny!"  
-Good idea'."

When Rabbit finally woke up the first thing she saw was something colourful before her eyes on the floor. At first, she didn't see what it was. But when her vision fully cleared and she could see what it was she smiled. It was a little bunny built of the Legos Rosé got from them. The bunny had long pink ears, a white tail that looked more quadrangular than like a round bunny tail. Its paws was red at the front legs and blue on the other two and the bunny's body was a mix with blue, pink and more white colors so it looked like someone had just threw different colors on it. She picked it up to look at it more closely. The eyes really looked like real eyes and it was as if they shined. And there was a paper on it that said: 'To Rabbit from Rosé and Caitlyn' she looked up at the others that was watching the tv. Jon was awake and fine, Dread still laid still but Rabbit still felt a little better by Rosé and Caitlyn’s gift. Caitlyn seemed like a nice person too, when she looked at them, they reminded her of herself a little. Back when she was unsure about her gender and asked Peter to build her to a girl robot, she had been so nervous about what the others would think about her but they still loved her just like before and was happy and proud of her. She finally got up from the sofa and went over to the others.  
-Whatcha' watching?" she asked. Some jumped in surprise.  
-Well, a nature documentary." Spine said simply.  
-Cool." she said before she smiled at Rosé and Caitlyn.  
-Thank you for the bunny, guys."  
-You're welcome." Rosé said.  
-Hope it made you a little better?" Caitlyn said.  
-Yes, it did. Super cute. I think I gonna name it Maya!" She then looked over at her little brother.  
-You feeling better, Jon?"  
-Yeah, just a little stiff still."  
-Stiff? You?"  
-Yep, I know. It sucks, but I will make it!"  
-Sure you will." Rabbit said smiling. Peter soon walked in to check on Dread and Jon.  
-Awake already I see." he said to Jon. He nodded.  
-Let me check on you a little." Peter continued and Jon let him take a quick look on his inner workings to see if they worked, which they did.  
-You're soon good as new, Jon."  
-Yay!" he said. Peter held up his hand.  
-But you must take it easy in the coming hours, ok?"   
-Sure I will."  
-I'll be damned if you manage to do that." Lil' Steve joked.  
-Hey!" Peter smiled, it was like usual despite everything that has happened, he was glad they tried to stay positive. But he frowned when he looked at Dread.  
-Nothing from Dread still?"  
-No. Nothing." Hatchworth said sadly. Peter began to check on him to, his workings was more damaged then Jon's. Rabbit walked over as well and was standing behind him.  
-Pappy?"  
-Yes, Rabbit?"  
-W-why did he try to take his life?"  
-It's hard to answer that Rabbit..."  
-Please, try."  
-When he knew about his Dad's passing he must have broken down. And maybe he was accepting his real fate, that he had already died once, and you can only do that once, and his human life was very hard. Humans aren't like you, Rabbit. They cannot be fixed if they break down like most robots can. When they die, they simply die and don't come back. A new sudden life must have confused him..." Rabbit tried to understand her master what he meant.  
-So he just want to be dead, instead of living like a robot?"  
-Yes, and sometimes I think that giving him this life was wrong of me..."  
-You just tried to help him, Pappy." Rabbit said and bent down beside him.  
-But what good has come from it? All his flashbacks, knowing his dad died before he could meet him again..."  
-You gave him a chance, reason to live, a new family, have a happy time with us despite everything."  
-I know. But still he wanted to end it all..."  
-He has always been like that, thinking he shouldn't exist." Caitlyn told them softly. "But I'm glad you tried Peter. Even just for a couple of months you tried to give him a new good start in life, and he was happy for once. Together we can make him change his mind"  
-Thank you, Caitlyn...I won't give up on him again, I promise"


	20. Reason to live

_The voices felt so far away, but he heard them beyond the never-ending darkness that embraced him, voices of his family and friends he had been about to leave. Most of the voices was worried. He could swear he had heard Rosé's and even Rabbit's cries after him. But he had given up long ago to try get closer to the voices, back to reality. It was no use. His dark mind had control over him now, all the dark memories, all those words that he shouldn’t exist. It went quiet for long hours and he thought they had given up as well, left him alone in this darkness he belonged to. But then he heard the voices again, Peter was one of them._  
_“Thank you, Caitlyn...I won't give up on him again, I promise"_  
_His father like voice teared Dread's still beating heart. Why couldn't they just let him be? Suddenly pain shot thru his body again like it had done when he had been in the rain, like an electric shock, the worst thing was that he couldn't help it. He wanted to move..._  
_'Don't! They don't love you anyway, you are dead, a waste of a human life!" the voice told him again and the pain grew worse. Was this what dying twice was like? Even if the voice screamed at him the back of his mind begged him to let the others help him, that he had a reason to continue living. And slowly, oh so slowly, he began to reach the surface...no....no..._

Peter had been trying to fix Dread's broken parts and went to get a new tool when he heard Hatchworth cry out.  
-Peter!" and he immediately looked back. Dread was hyperventilating and steam came from his mouth and his open chest. Hatchworth and Rabbit quickly took hold of him so he wouldn't hurt himself as Peter hurried over as well.  
-Dread, son!?" he said in panic but no reaction from him. Something was wrong. Dread took a fistful grip of the mattress he was laying on tightly in panic and he opened his eyes slightly as he tried to get away from them.  
-Calm down, we just wanna help you, son." Peter tried again. But he continued to struggle and Rosé was whimpering in Jon's arms on the sofa. Caitlyn looked scared as well. Peter desperately tried to calm him down while he searched for any life in his eyes. Only fear was in his ice blue optics, they clearly said 'Leave me alone, don't help me!' but Peter would not let his new son down. Ever.  
-Chelsea, Camille!" he screamed in panic as Dread's struggling became too much and Hatchworth almost got hurt in the process, he was not going to risk his children's own lives. The two girls hurried over and quickly tried to fix Dread as Hatchworth and Rabbit stepped aside. Dread suddenly pressed himself against the beds corner, gasping violently.  
-S-stop...helping me..." he said weakly. He was still vibrating. The rest of the humans had now also reached the living room, had heard all the screams.  
-You need help, Dread. Please just let us-"  
-No... I'm already dead...no one..." he's body slumped again. "wants me...." oil came from his eyes, it was his mind's voice that spoke for him now. But Rosé jumped of off Jon and ran over to him, she had managed to help him once before...  
-Please, Dread. Let us help you...we need you, I need you..." she cried. He tried to look at her but couldn't move his head very well so he continued to look down.  
-W-why?" he asked in a weak voice. Rosé jumped up at the bed and looked up at him with pleading eyes.  
-You're are my brother Dread, the others brother, the best one in the world...your family loves you too...please, come back to us" she cried harder when he didn't answer and just looked down, shaking.  
-Please, brother..." Caitlyn also walked over and put a hand on his shoulder.  
-You are my best bro too, Dread." they said.

Nora herself was watching everything that was happening by the doorframe in silence. Caitlyn gave her a look but didn't say anything. Dread finally looked at Rosé, his eyes held that normal gaze. The evil voice soon disappeared and all he heard was the tv that was barely audible and Rose’s cries for him to come back.  
-R-Rosé..." he finally said. At the sound at his voice Rosé hugged him. He froze at first but then hugged back.  
-Thank you..." he whispered. He fell all limp again and Peter laid him on the bed on his back again.  
-I'm just gonna check some more, ok? Then it's all done." Dread noded slowly, looking all dazed. He flinched a little when Peter mixed with his workings but after a minute he was finally done and he closed the cap. Caitlyn hugged Dread carefully as well.  
-I thought I would lose you again." they cried, happy tears ran down their face.  
-No...it won't be that easy to kill me again..." Dread mumbled. Caitlyn left him alone to rest. But Dread didn't dare to fall asleep again after what had happened, what if the shadows got him and dragged him away again? He stayed awake even if his body screamed that it needed rest. He looked at the tv the others were watching from time to time and would pretend that he was asleep when they looked over at him. Even if he had escaped death again he felt nothing. Others would probably get happy and thankful that they survived but not him. He tried to move more but he still barely could move around. It just hurt when he tried. All he could do was to lay there and breathe. After a long time, Rabbit was by his side and he didn't care to fake ha was asleep anymore.  
-How are you?" she asked softly, her otherwise cheering attitude was completely gone. It felt strange to see her like this but Dread knew this was because of him.  
-Could have been better...how about Jon and the others?"  
-They are fine, it could have been worse. Jon almost broke down and Rosé ran off with GG and Lil' Steve to find you." her tone made Dread forget his breathing and he would have shrunken back in shame but his body hurt too much.  
-All alone?"  
-Yes."  
He looked down at the bed sheets. The thought of the small robots and Lil’ Steve all alone in the storm...but why? Was Dread really that special? He had almost killed them and Jon because of his selfishness. What the fuck had he done?  
-I'm..." he started but didn't finish his sentence and let out a defeated sigh, it was no use anyway. There was no excuse for what he had done and Rabbit had stopped anyway him to ask:  
-Why did you try to kill yourself?" it went silent for a long minute and the others glanced over at him too. When everyone’s looks borrowed into him he felt that he had to real answer. He looked away from their gazes.  
-I just make things worse for everyone and no one would notice I'm gone anyway. I am dead anyway Rabbit, so why are you still trying? I almost killed Jon and the others..." Jon immediately managed to stand up.  
-That’s not true, Dread! You matter to us, and I will be fine! I have been thru worse than this."  
-No, it is all my fault..."  
-Don't say that." Rabbit said and embraced him. "Ever again." he was still in her hold until he finally went to sleep and Rabbit laid him down. Why were humans so complicated?

  
A few days went by and autumn became winter and snow was falling outside early this year. Rosé stared at the snow in awe by the windows. It looked even better then rain, all glittering and looked so soft. The snow flings were big and fell silently and slowly down from the sky. She had always wondered how snow was created. The others had explained that it was from the smoke that was collected from lakes and sea that went up to the sky and became clouds and would eventually rain but on the winter when it was cold enough the rain turned into snowflakes instead. So, the snow was really rain that was just frozen. That thought made it even more fun for Rosé. But it sure was worse for the robots to be outside in this weather. Even the humans got cold and had to cover themselves with jackets, boot's and such. Rosé remembered the hat she had gotten from the others and winter clothes and after much begging she was allowed to be outside with Chelsea only for a little while so she could feel the snow. It really felt soft in her gloved hand and it was so white and untouched. The snow sparked in the winter sun. After a while she had to go in and warm herself up by the fire. Jon had completely recovered and moved around like nothing had happened but still had to be careful. But he would forget that and run around a little too much and Spine had to calm him down before anything would happen.  
-Relax now, Jon." he had said and he listened to him for once. Dread slowly recovered as well. He had to laid down most of the time and his body hurt when he tried to walk. His back and legs were the worst and because of his height the others had a hard time to stabilize him when they walked with him. He mostly sat and read books and Peter would check on him on daily basis. Dread had noticed that the others had started to put up christmas decorations and a small reindeer made from corn was placed in the living room with a red rosette around its neck. Caitlyn had decided that they would stay for christmas and Nora too, as a thanks for saving Dread, but it seemed to be against her will and she avoided the robots as much as she could. While the others were outside Dread was by the fire and reading something and Rosé moved over to his side.  
-Hi, what are you reading?"  
-It's kind of a horror drama.'' he said.  
-Oh. What is it about?"  
-Well, it's about a girl that lives with her mean family and then her twin sister shows up and she gets all the attention because she is beautiful and blames the younger sister for everything and the older twin hates her."  
-Sounds sad..."  
-Yeah, but the younger, bullied sister has magic powers so she gets her revenge in the end. Let's just say she scared the twin and she never tried to be mean to her again."  
-Ok." Rosé said, looking a little happier about that. He felt warm inside. In those months she had grown so much. Her eyes that had held so much fear was now happy and sparkled with joy like little kid’s eyes should do and she spoke more then she had before but the most positive for them was that she barely had nightmares anymore since she got the lamp and slept peacefully for whole nights.  
-Caitlyn wanted help with putting up the christmas star on the tree." Rosé said to him and he looked back at her.  
-He said since you are the tallest, well..." she smiled.  
-Sure, I'll help." he said and stood up, laid the book aside on the table and followed her to one of the big halls were the biggest christmas tree was standing. It was indeed very tall. Caitlyn noticed them walking in. Even if they stood on a small bench they still didn’t reach the top.  
-There you are, bro. Could you help me with this?" they asked and motioned with the tree star towards the tree top. Dread nodded and easily put the tree star on the top. The tree was now complete. The other robots were playing christmas songs, they could be heard over the whole Mansion.  
-Rosé, could you go see how the others are doing? Caitlyn and I are gonna need to talk alone" Dread asked with a wink. Rosé did as she was told, having a knowing what they were going to talk about. And it was indeed about christmas presents.  
-So, do you know what you are going to give her?" Caitlyn asked.  
-Yea. I was thinking about a CD"  
-Cool, which one?"  
-Linkin Park's first album." (Rest in peace Chester Bennington)  
Caitlyn’s face seemed to fall a little.  
-You sure? I mean, there are some serious songs they sing." he was right, maybe she was too young for that kind of music. But before Dread could say that it was a stupid thought Caitlyn spoke up again.  
-It's not bad, I mean, they are good and all but do you think she would understand?"  
-I hope so, she is smart...and maybe she will feel a little better when she listens to them, she will feel even less alone knowing even humans have a hard time. Their music helped me, it could help her."  
-You're a good person, Dread, and will always be." Caitlyn. For once, Dread tried to take in his brother's/sister's words instead of letting them pass by him like he had done with everyone else who praised him.  
-Thanks..."  
Meanwhile Rosé was with the others who was still playing in the playing room. Steve was by one of his DJ boards and played around with Lil' Steve. Rabbit let her use her melodica a little and she gladly played along with them. Nora watched them from distance. She was still unsure about them. Those were big machines that could easily kill you, who were walking around casually. She mostly stayed away from Spine, even when he tried to have conversation like a human being she ignored him, it wasn't that he could care anyway. They were not humans or even close like her son, they were dead things nothing more.  
Her thoughts was interrupted when someone walked into her by mistake and she quickly turned around.

-Oh! sorry, Dread's mom!"  
Great, it was the small one with the weird hat. Jon, she thinks was his name. He lifted his hat in apology and smiled. The look in his eyes made her for a moment really think he meant it and it wasn't a program Peter had done. She shook that feeling of.  
-No problem." she muttered and looked away again.  
-Are you and Caitlyn going to stay here for christmas?" before she could answer he continued.  
-Yey!" he clapped his hands like a child. That almost brought a smile on Nora's face.  
-What do you wish for?"  
-Nothing, really." she hadn't meant to answer but for some reason the words left her mouth.  
-Why?"  
Dammit! now she had to answer again or else he wouldn’t leave her alone. Or maybe she should ignore him too? But as he waited for her answer she felt tears form in her eyes, it felt like she just couldn’t ignore his question, but she forced herself not to cry when she finally answered.  
-Haven't feel like celebrating christmas since my husband died  
-Oh..."  
Jon frowned but at the same time he seemed to be in thought.  
-What's a husband now again?" he asked innocently and tilted his head slightly. The urge to answer came again. Even if he wouldn't understand it maybe would feel good for Nora to let it out.  
-A husband or wife is someone you really love, live together with and sometimes have children with. That's what makes me Dread's mother and my husband his father...he died not long ago."  
-I'm sorry to hear that, Dread's mom, but I'm sure he is in a good place now. When I was in the war with the others , I was told that our dead men would come to a better place, because they tried to help others even if it would hurt them or kill them." Nora now looked at the small robot, surprised.  
-You have been to war?"  
-Yes, many years ago. Rabbit and the others too. But we still feel bad about it even after all these years, especially Spine.”  
-Why?"  
-Even if we were programmed to kill enemies it still...hurt. First time I killed a man I got sad. We witnessed many deaths and must live with it. But our other friends died for a good thing like your husband, so he is in a good place. I think he just wants you to be happy for him!" he smiled up at her and she even smiled back at him.  
-Thank you, Jon."  
-For what?"  
-For telling me."  
-Sure, Dread's mom!"  
-You can call me Nora."  
-Alright, Nora. See you later!" he went back to the others and for the first time since her husband’s death she felt...happy and relived.


	21. Christmas shopping and tears

Rosé had never baked before and it had looked like no fun but now when she helped the Walter girls to do gingerbread cookies it felt like the funniest things she had done in a long time. Most of the other were out and shopping christmas presents already. Rosé had already drawn pictures for everyone. She looked in the small huddle of gingerbread forms she and the Walter Girls had done. There were angels, pigs, deer’s, Santa’s and such. But she wanted to do an own form. She carved carefully a little rose form with a little food knife instead for the big knives. She was proud of how it turned out. Not the perfect rose, but still.  
-Nice, Rosé" Chelsea said as she looked over at the form. "Looks exactly like a rose"  
-Thank you"  
While they were baking Dread looked after the Linkin Park CD for Rosé with Hatchworth, Spine and Caitlyn. It was so many different CD's in the store and more people than usual was walking around to buy christmas gifts, which caused small crowds and one who really didn't like that was Spine. He had always hated tight places and close crowds so he waited outside while the others were inside despite the cold and the snow that still fell. Dread understood hui, he wasn’t a fan of crowds either. People cheered (Most of them were fans) and wished the robots a good holiday, even Dread when they saw him. One young girl, about 16, and a boy probably that seemed a little older came towards him.  
-Are you a new member?" the girl asked him, smiling. She was that typical girl that had lipstick, makeup and light brown hair. But she was kind of cute actually.  
-Em, not really but I-" he started and was surprised when she hugged him, silenced him. Hatchworth, who stood a couple of meters away, snickered at him. Dread shrugged. "She came at me" he mouthed at him.  
-Excuse my sister, she is a big fan, you see, and loves new robots." the boy said when he noticed Dread was uncomfortable. He then studied him a little more.  
-You sure look cool" he said.  
-Thank you" Dread answered a little awkward.  
She finally let go, still smiling like a three year old.  
-Oh, you are so tall too!" she said. The boy carefully dragged her away from him.  
-Come on now, sis" he said and dragged her along.  
-No, can’t we stay a little long- OH! IT'S HATCHY!" she fan screamed and Hatchworth’s expression visibly said "Oh, crap" Dread smiled before he went back to find the CD. He soon found it with the help of Caitlyn. It was one of the first albums Linkin Park had done, Hybrid Theory. He studied the cover with the soldier looking man you couldn't see the face on that was running with a stick, maybe a flag, or an axe in his hand and what looked like wings behind his back. While he looked at it something else had caught Caitlyn’s eye. It was a CD with Paradise Lost and the album was called Gothic. That would be perfect for Dread. They held it by their side so he wouldn't see until they paid for the CD's.  
-What's that?" Dread asked Caitlyn when they put the CD in the case.  
-A surprise, bro. No looking"  
-Alright"  
They all walked out from the store and meet Spine who was still in the same spot he had been in when they went inside. They had now bought gifts for everyone except Jon. They had asked him already what he wanted and he wanted everything from toys and games to airplanes and horses. They went with the games or toys. They didn't find much PlayStation 2 games but they did find Crash Bandicoot games. Dread hadn't seen any of those games in their room but it did look like a game that he would like. Caitlyn had walked further into the store to look more around but they agreed to meet again by the exit.

But as Dread and the others got there, Caitlyn wasn’t there. They were nowhere in sight either in the crowd of people, what was taking them so long? had something happened? No, they should be here soon. But as they waited for some long minutes Dread was first to go in and looked after his sibling, the others followed him. Caitlyn wasn't even by the checkpoint. Now Dread started to get worried.  
-I'm sure they’re fine, Dread" Hatchworth said but Dread could hear that even he was unsure about his own words. Suddenly, Dread could hear loud voices in his sensitive ears, loud and mean words... he hurried towards the sounds and the others tried to keep up with him, he had almost completely forgot about them. They came to the toilets with toilet cubicles and he was shocked at what he saw when he opened the door. His brother was on the ground against the wall, covering their eye, crying and two boys about Dread’s age laughed at them.  
-Aww, the freak is crying!" one of them said with false empathy, bushing his friend's shoulder jokingly and then started to kick Caitly, and that's when Dread became furious, his shock had disappeared and he walked over with long, hard steps towards the boy who had spoken and took hold of his shoulder to turn him around, making him face him before he grabbed him by the collar, looking into his eyes, his own now burned with anger.  
-What do you think you're doing, huh!?" he spat. Hatchworth hid behind Spine who was at loss what to do at first but when Dread threw the boy against the wall and the boy yelped, Spine hurried over before the fight would get worse. He held Dread's shoulders calmingly.  
-Dread, this is not going to solve-"  
-Let go off me, they hurt Caitlyn!" Dread said and tried to break lose. The boy he had thrown at the wall stood up and was now smiling.  
-So, you're the freak's bro, huh? a fucking machine, you think I'm scared of you?"  
-You should!" Dread said and took a step closer, Spine still tried to hold him in place.  
-If you touch my them again, I will beat the shit out of you!" the boys backed away but as they were about to leave they pushed them out of the way.  
-Freaks!" the other one spat and then looked at poor Hatchworth who was close to the wall with fear in his eyes.  
-What the fuck are you anyway, huh!?" they said. “Garbage, that’s what you are!” now they were teasing him and Spine walked over to stand before his brother.  
-You leave him and the others alone." he said calmly but with a threateningly tone that gave even Dread goosebumps. He had never heard him like this. “Please…”  
-Or what!?" the boy Dread had grabbed said. Steam escaped from Spine's mouth and neck as his neck suddenly grew out from his torso, half of his Spine was visible and his eyes almost glowed red with pure hate as he walked closer. The boys now really looked scared and backed away. He grabbed the boy who had spoken by his jacket and pushed him away with such force he almost fell but got his balance in time. He swore before he ran away like the coward he was, not paying any mind to his friend who quickly ran after him.  
-Hey, wait for me!"  
Spine let out a breath to calm himself before he slipped back to his torso again and looked behind him to see if Hatchworth was ok, he was a little shaken up, but alright. They both then looked at Caitlyn and Dread. Dread was on the floor by their side.  
-Caitlyn, you ok?" he asked softly. Caitlyn didn't say anything but continued to shield their face. Dread took hold of their wrists and carefully pulled away their hands from their face. Caitlyn had gotten a black eye from the hit one of the boys had given them. They had just been out and paid for their things and was about to go back to them when the boys suddenly had dragged them into the toilet and started taunting them. Calling them names and complaining about the clothes they were wearing, that they hated persons like them. Not even when it was almost christmas would people leave each other alone. Dread hugged Caitlyn close to him, shushing them.  
-It's ok, I'm here now. Everything will be fine" Caitlyn’s cries soon died down as all three was by their side, comforting them.  
-You're safe now" Spine said softly. They helped Caitlyn up from the floor while Hatchworth took their bags Caitlyn had dropped when the boys had attacked them. They had luckily not broken anything. Dread looked at his sibling’s face before he searched for more wounds, no serious ones thankfully.  
-Thanks..." Caitlyn sniffled, barely audible.  
-No problem. Let's go home now, ok?"  
They just nodded slightly in answer and they left the toilets and the store. Caitlyn stayed close to the others as much as possible. Steve was waiting by the car for them and noticed Caitlyn’s black eye and their face was still red from crying.  
-Who did this?" he asked with a serious tone.  
-Some bullies" Spine answered. Steve nodded in understanding and went over to Caitlyn to rub their shoulder.  
-You ok?"  
-Yeah." they said, wiping their face one last time and tried to smile.  
-We put some ice on it when we get home." Steve reassured them with a smile before everyone got into the car to drive home.

Camille opened the door for them when they got back to the Manor and was slightly shocked when she saw Caitlyn as well.  
-Gosh, are they alright?" she asked softly.  
-They will be fine, Caitlyn is tough." Steve said with a smile and Caitlyn smiled despite the pain in their eye. Camille on the other hand didn't look that convinced but stepped aside so they could come in with all the plastic bags with christmas gifts. Rabbit who had been putting up some Santa’s in the hall hurried over when she saw them.  
-Are you alright?!" she said a little too loud with worry. Caitlyn flinched a little.  
-Yes, I’m fine." They said softly. She studied their black eye. "You can't look like that now, right? Come and we put some ice on it right now!" she said and they went to the kitchen. Dread couldn't help but smile slightly, Rabbit was all jumpy like her usual self again, trying to lighten up the mood, and it felt good that she was feeling better. It made himself and Caitlyn calm. They met Rosé on the way. She greeted them but her small eyes flashed with worry when she saw Caitlyn.  
-I'm gonna be fine, Rosé, really..." they tried to reassure her. But she followed them in as well. Rabbit opened the freezer and after some looking she found some ice she put in a cloth. Caitlyn then held it on their eye as they sat down in one of the chairs. It throbbed at first and they let out a soft shaky breath from cold before they relaxed. Rosé patted their knee in a soothing motion. Nora showed up as well after Camille had told her what happened.  
-Oh, dear Caitlyn." she said and hugged them. Caitlyn almost let out a sigh from all the attention they had gotten those few minutes, they appreciated it but didn't want them to be so worried over a black eye. But Nora knew they got bullied and always felt guilty over that she couldn't always be there to help them.  
-Mom, I'm gonna be fine, really"  
-Are you sure?" she asked as she let go of them but still held their shoulders while she was sitting with one knee on the kitchen floor.  
-Yes." she nodded before she stood up and then looked up at Dread.  
-Thank you, Dread." she said.  
-Thank The Spine. He helped us all."  
-I will..." she said softly and leaved them alone. Why did this have to happen, so close to christmas? Were people really that heartless? Ever since Caitlyn had been a little kid they had been bullied but they never dare to fight back, not even now. She just wanted them to feel free to live a normal life without those mean people in the world to tease them...  
She saw Spine who was helping Matt with a christmas star they tried to hang up by the window. Nora stopped for a second when she saw him. She didn't really know why she was feeling so nervous. He had helped her children after all. She scolded herself and made her legs walk over to him.  
-Spine?" she said. He looked over at her while he tried to hang the star in place.  
-Yes, Miss Nora?" he said softly.  
-I just wanted to thank you for helping Dread and Caitlyn today from those bullies." he gave her a warm smile.  
-No problem."  
-Really, thank you, Caitlyn has had it rough lately...they have been bullied for a long time and it has been even harder for them since my husband died."  
Spine frowned a little and his eyes showed so much sympathy she had never expected to see in a robot’s eyes since she had looked in Jon's. He let go of the star and turned his body towards her.  
-I'm glad I could help. I'm sure everything will get better for them soon, Miss Nora. I'm sorry about your husband but remember that Caitlyn still has you and Dread."  
No more words needed to be said, she only nodded. She had to stay strong for her children.  
Later when it started to get dark Caitlyn was all fine gain. The mark would be there for some days but other than that there was nothing to worry about. Nora had reported the boys who did it after they had told her how they looked like. That was the least she could do. Dread was still mad that the boys still ran free to probably tease or hurt someone else but glad that Nora had reported them and that Caitlyn was home and safe. Dread wrapped in some christmas gifts for the others in his and Jon's room and he had told him at least three times to not come in. Now he was alone and was on the last present, Rose's. He had barely wrapped it in when he heard a soft sound from the floor by the door. He was a about to call out to Jon, but when he turned he saw Rosé.  
-No peaking, Rosé" he said. She giggled but backed away. When her present was done he laid it with the others in the big christmas bag they would lay by the big christmas tree (They had the big one in the hall and a small one on the living room)  
-You can come in now." he said and she was by the door again and opened it enough so she could get thru. She looked at the presents with different and colourful wrappers. She pointed at the purple one with blue snow flings on and with a red rosette.  
-Is this one of my presents?" she asked with excitement.  
-Yep, but you must wait until christmas." Dread said.  
-When is that?"  
-Tomorrow it's two days left."  
-It's going to be so much fun, Dread!" she said and clapped her hands almost like Jon used to do. He gave her an amused smile.  
-Yeah, it sure will, sister." but deep inside him was a bittersweet feeling. He was gonna celebrate christmas without his father. But didn't want to show he was down for Rosé who was so happy so he grabbed the bag "Let's put this under the tree, shall we?" Rosé gladly followed him to the biggest tree and put the bag down.  
-The tree looks nice." Rosé said as she looked up at the star at the top.  
-Sure does." Dread said. Sounds from the tv came from the living room and they walked in to see that everyone was in there and watched the tv or sat by the fire.

Rosé went over to Jon and the others while Dread went to the halls to look at the christmas decorations, also to be alone for a while. It hung stars and stickers with snow mans and reindeers and small Santa’s. It looked cute actually. He remembered when he and his dad, mom and Caitlyn used to hang up decorations when he was and a little boy. They were so happy back then, even if the times were rough. Caitlyn stayed positive and happy despite everything. Nothing would change their ways how they were to others. Dread wished he could be like Caitlyn sometimes, tried to stay positive despite all the shit in the world. But he wasn't. He sighed, steam escaped from his neck and he watched the smoke slowly make its way towards the ceiling. He had been so focused in that so he barely heard the steps behind him.  
-H-hi." a much familiar voice said and he turned to see Rabbit who smiled kindly at him.  
-What's up." he answered and looked at the lamp on the floor that looked like a polar bear when he didn't see the smoke anymore.  
-Looks good, huh" she said proudly. "I did evrything. Em, well...Chelsea and Camille helped too of course."  
-Cool."  
-W-what are you t-t-thinking about?"  
-I was just thinking about christmas and such."  
-A-alright. I saw Rosé was trying to peak into your room before, she must be sooo exited." she smiled.  
-You have no idea."  
-What did you by for her?"  
-A CD."  
-Nice. D-d-did you buy something for me?"  
-You'll see."  
-Aw, man!" Dread smiled at this.  
-You won't tell me either, huh?"  
-Nope."  
-I thought so."  
-Why don't you come and sit with us?" she suddenly asked.  
-I really don’t want to be in the way for you guys..."  
-Come on! You aren't. Rosé even wondered where you were. Must be better than standing in the dark alone." she patted his shoulder to come with her and that feeling he had gotten the last time she had touched him like that came to him again, like an electric shock.

He followed slowly behind to the others in the living room. Rosé was sitting with Jon and Hatchworth in the sofa and they smiled when they saw Dread.  
-Heya' Dread." Hatchworth said. Dread smiled slightly and Rabbit led him to the sofa to sit as well. His anxiety started to well up but he sat down and Rabbit sat beside him. He noticed GG laying on the floor and seemed to be asleep. Steve was on the other side of him with Lil' Steve in his lap. Spine was beside Rabbit and looked really interested in the tv, it looked like some sort of documentary. Dread soon realized it was about 80s britain. He liked documentary like this but had not expected the others to like it too. Most of them anyway, Lil' Steve looked bored as heck and groaned from time to time and didn’t hold still.  
-Do we really have to watch this?" he asked, looking up at Steve.  
-It's interesting."  
-For you yeah." he crossed his arms and tried to get comfortable in his lap so he could go to sleep. But when they started to talk about Jack The Ripper it seemed to pick his interest. But Rosé curled up ever so slightly as they spoke on the tv about him and all people he had killed but Jon and Hatchworth reassured her that Jack was long dead and Jon patted her on the shoulder. After some minutes they finally spoke about something else and Rosé were at ease again. They just talked about how they dressed and such back then and bout queen Victoria. Even if it was interesting it could also be very tiresome and when it was near the end of the documentary Rosé had fallen asleep alongside Jon. Dread had dozen of a few times as well. But when he saw she was asleep he smiled slightly.  
-Look who's asleep already." he said.  
-It is pretty late." Steve said as he looked at the watch. "We have things to do tomorrow for christmas too." he stood up carefully with Steve in his hands to not wake him, because that would be disaster. The end credits showed up on the screen.  
-Hey, Jon!" Hatchworth said as he nudged Jon who woke up with a start.  
-Huh!?"  
-The movie is over." Hatchworth explained, amused.  
-Oh, alright." Jon said and stood up.  
-I'll take Rosé to bed." Rabbit said and picked her up into her arms.  
-Goodnight, guys." she said. Everyone said their goodnights before the tv got turned off and they all went to their rooms.


	22. The best christmas

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooo, the last chapter. Me and my friend had fun writing this fanfic actually. I hope you liked it as much as we enjoyed to write this! :)

_Two days later_

Rabbit opened her eyes and the first thing she saw was that it was snowing outside. She smiled and then looked at Rosé who was still sleeping peacefully in her little bed with GG by her feet. Rabbit stood up and carefully walked over to her and shook her lightly.  
-Wake, wake Rosé." she said with a cheerful voice. She opened her eyes.  
-Guess what day it is?" Rabbit asked and that must have been the right wake up call. Rosé fully opened her eyes and quickly sat up. She looked towards the window as well and saw the snow outside.  
-It's christmas!" she said happily and GG woke up from her voice and looked around tiredly. Rosé hugged Rabbit and she patted her back.  
-That's right, bestie. Shall we see what the others are doing?" she asked as they let go of each other. Rosé nodded and they got dressed. Rosé had her new hoodie she had gotten from Steve and Lil' Steve on her birthday and Rabbit her usual red and black coat that hung like a small dress and grey tights. They walked out, GG followed of course, and the others were out as well. Everyone except Dread.  
-Is he still sleeping?" Rabbit asked even if she knew the answer.  
-Yup, like a stone." Jon said.  
-Shall we wake him?" Rabbit asked with a grin as she looked at Rosé. She smiled back and the two girl robots and Jon went over to his room. Dread was asleep, heavily. Rosé jumped up on his bed and began to jump on his stomach.  
-Wake up Dread! It's christmas!" she laughed and he began to open his eyes and rubbed them.  
-Oh, yeah right, christmas." he yawned.  
-Come on, Sleepyhead!" Rosé tried again and he looked at her.  
-Yeah, yeah, I'm up, I'm up." he said amused and Rosé got of him so he could sit up. After he had also dressed up he gave her a hug.  
-Merry christmas, sis." he said.  
-Merry christmas." Rosé answered and smiled against his shoulder. They let go and when he turned to leave, Rabbit and Jon stood before him.  
-Don't forget us." Jon said and gave him a long christmas hug as well, Rabbit too after him.  
-Merry christmas guys." Dread said.  
-You too, Dread." they answered warmly. When they got out they greeted the others and they all wished everyone a merry christmas. Caitlyn and Nora were in the kitchen as well and greeted them.  
-Merry christmas, bro." Caitlyn said and hugged him. Their eye had recovered very well, didn't look as bad as it had done before.  
-Merry christmas, honey." Nora said softly as well with a smile.  
-Merry christmas, mom..." Dread said and for a second he almost expected his dad to come up behind her and greet him as well, but of course, he wasn't there. But the bittersweet feeling disappeared as quickly as it had come when he saw Lil' Steve on the kitchen table and talking a little with the others. Dread walked over and the doll looked up at him.  
-Hello there, Smartass." he said. Dread smiled at his tease.  
-Hi to you too, Little Fuck Steve." he said. "I just wanted to say merry christmas."  
-This is no joke, right?"  
-Actually not."  
-Same to you then."  
-Thanks."  
-And don't you dare h-"  
-Happy christmas, Lil' Steve!" Hatchworth said and hugged him from behind and Lil' Steve groaned while Dread smiled.  
-Hatchy, seriously?"  
-Please, just this once?"  
-Fine..." Hatchworth patted him before he let him down again.  
The others were preparing food for the celebrating later. Chicken, ham, potato and all kinds of other food Rosé had never seen before.  
-Humans eat all this?" she asked, making the others laugh.  
-Not all at once, but yeah, we eat a lot on christmas with family and friends, it's a tradition." Michael explained to her and she nodded in interest.  
-Can I help too?" she asked.  
-Sure, you can help us prepare the table for later."  
-Ok." she got to get the glasses while Camille took the plates and Nora and Caitlyn did the decorations so it would look nice. Caitlyn also got the cutlery for everyone. The plates had different Disney characters on them like the glasses. (Note: my family has glasses and plates with Disney characters too, it has always been a tradition for us to have them on Christmas. That’s what inspired me to use that in this chapter :) )

Rosé laid the glass down with the same figure on the cover like the plates had, like Snow Shite and Pinocchio. She had accidently dropped one glass to the floor and fear and regret flashed in her eyes. The glass luckily only got a crack and a tiny piece were missing but she didn't realize it because she waited for them to scold her.  
-I'm so sorry." She said with tears in her eyes. Nora, for a second, saw her own son Dread before her from when he was 4 years old and had dropped a plate and it had scattered all over the floor and he had cried.

_"I'm sorry, mom!" she had knelt down before him. "It's ok, son. It was just an accident honey..."_

She walked over to her shaking form and bent down before her as well.  
-It's alright, Rosé, accidents happen and it wasn't so bad, see." she pointed at the glass and she saw she was right, the glasses were pretty tough made and was hard to break that easily.  
-Dread also used to drop things when he was small. It's ok." Nora said in a motherly voice and hugged her as she sniffled. Caitlyn’s heart warmed up at the sight of their mother comforting little Rosé as if they had known each other for years even if they only known each other for a few days. They went over to Rosé as well.  
-Nobody is gonna get mad at you for an accident. We still love you, don't forget that." they said softly and patted her on the arm. Rosé nodded weakly at them.  
-Ok..." she wiped her tears.  
-Let's finish the decorations, shall we?" Nora said cheerfully and Rosé lit up a little again and they were back to what they had been doing before and when they were done it looked nice and cosy.  
-Nice, girls and Caitilyn." Steve said as he turned from cooking food with a smile.

"What do you think, buddy?" He asked Lil' Steve.

-Looks good." he simply said and Steve gave him a look. "Ok, it looks really good."  
-Thank you, Steve's. How's the food doing?" Nora asked.  
-Just good." Steve said and gave a thumbs up.  
-Good!"

Sometime later the food was done and everyone got what they wanted and then sat down on the big table in the dining room they rarely used otherwise. The humans sat on one side of the table and the robots on the other side. Dread looked tired as usual but tried to stay fully awake as they all had a great time together. He tried to listen what the others said but could barely hear them and almost dozed off.  
-Tired already, Dread?" Jon joked. Rabbit looked at him, he sat between her and Rosé, and she nudged him.  
-Oh, sorry. But we woke up early this morning."  
-Blame it on that, huh." Jon said with a smile.  
-Mm, ha ha." Dread said ironically with his chin in his hand and had half close eyes, making Jon snicker. When they were done eating it was finally time to open the christmas gifts and some sat on the floor by the big christmas tree and some stood up. Rosé was first to get her first present. She smiled when she opened it and saw a children book about Dumbo. The next one was Disney's Djunglebook, then a small, soft toy unicorn and the last thing was the CD from Dread. He got it for her but hid it behind his back with a smile.  
-Which one?" he asked as he fiddled with it behind his back. She pointed at his right shoulder and he held out his empty hand and she tried the left one instead and he put the gift on his right hand and showed an empty hand again. She pretended to get mad but smiled as she tried to look behind him and tried to pull away his hands from behind his back. He smiled and soon she got the gift and opened it.  
-Thank you!" she said and hugged him. She thanked the others too with a big smile before the others started to open their gifts too. Jon opened the one with the Crash Bandicoot games.  
-I haven't played those before. Thanks Guys." he said. "I will put them in later!"  
-Can't you wait until tomorrow?" Chelsea asked.  
-Nope, I can't wait!"  
Dread smiled at his enthusiasm for some games. Spine got a new tie and even a new hat consider that the one he was wearing now was pretty old and worn. Hatchworth got a book about space and a big clock for his room and you could see the clock's inner workings that fascinated him, was enough to make him happy. Rabbit opened her gifts and got three small candles and a new dress and Dread got a little nervous when she opened her gift from him, wonder what she would think of it. She opened the tiny box that the ring he had bought were in and at first, she seemed to gasp but then smiled. The ring was beautiful and old looking. It was made of silver with a bronze flower. She immediately went to hug Dread.  
-Thank you so much, Dread." she said warmly and he swallowed.  
-You're welcome." he said and for once ignored Jon who smiled playfully at their hug. But the hug didn't mean anything, or did it? He almost dared to ask her. Dread opened his own gifts, first the CD of Paradis Lost Gothic album from Caitlyn they had bought when they were in the CD shop. It felt like forever he had listened to them, he didn't recognize the cover either, but it was always fun to listen to albums you haven't heard before.  
-Thanks, Caitlyn." he said and they smiled.  
-You haven't heard that one before, right?"  
-Nope."  
-I was right then."  
The next one was a hoodie but when he saw the letters on it, tears welled up in his eyes. It stood 'Brother' with old english letters.  
-We all made it ourselves!" Hatchworth explained. The others smiled as well.  
-Thank you, guys." Dread managed to utter.  
-Anything for our little brother."

After everyone had opened their christmas gifts, Caitlyn got some makeup, eyeliner and such, Peter some new laboratory instruments and scientist books, Steve and Lil' Steve got some action movies and new bandanas, Michael some new tools and a new book about mechanism, Matt got a Rubiks Cube, which he thought was amusing, and some comics. Nora got a gift card and a new necklace, GG a small red ball to play with and the Walter Girls new white shoes that was almost identical except that Camille’s shoelace were white and Chelsea’s were light blue, Dread began to try on his new hoodie. It fitted him well and it must have taken the others a long time to make it long enough for his tall torso. It was grey and the letter were black of course, cause it was his favourite colors. Some of the other robots came by while they went over to Jon's room.  
-Hey, Dread. We are gonna try the new game, wanna come?" Hatchworth asked.  
“Why not?” Dread thought and followed them. When they put in 'Crash Bandicoot: Tag Team Racing' the sound was a little loud at first and Rosé jumped a little in surprise at the loud noise and Jon quickly turned down the volume a little. The game was like any Crash Bandicoot game with puzzles with the marsupial Crash and the villain Doctor Neo Cortex tried to stop him, but the game was mostly about driving cars and do races and minigames. Everyone got to play a little, it was fun and it felt like forever since Dread had played any of those games. They finished probably halfway before they turned it off to go and get some gingerbread cookies. Rosé was proud over the cookies she had made. The other cookies the others had done looked good as well. When they were done they put in Rose's new CD and began to listen in the living room. What they quickly realized was that it was rock/rap and Dread glanced over at Rosé to see what she thought about it and she seemed to like it, even moved her head a little to the rhythm, it was serious lyrics but still not too aggressive songs.

 _It starts with one thing_  
_I don't know why_  
_It doesn't even matter how hard you try_  
_Keep that in mind_  
_I designed this rhyme_  
_To explain in due time_  
_All I know_  
_Time is a valuable thing_  
_Watch it fly by as the pendulum swings_  
_Watch it count down to the end of the day_  
_The clock ticks life away_

When the song 'In The End' started Dread suddenly felt his heart get heavy inside him and a bittersweet feeling, he remembered everything that had happened those months and even before that, both happy and sad, like when he ran away and how the others helped him thru everything and told him his life was worth living, even the afterlife...how he even got Caitlyn and mom back...and a new home.

 _I tried so hard_  
_And got so far_  
_But in the end_  
_It doesn't even matter_  
_I had to fall_  
_To lose it all_  
_But in the end_  
_It doesn't even matter_

The others must have gotten a similar feeling because they were all silent and listened, but at the same time they loved it. By the last two songs they turned on the fire and settled down to watch christmas movies or just chill by the fireplace. Dread sat by the fireplace with Rabbit. Rosé was in the middle of the room, playing a little with GG’s new ball. Lil' Steve was on Steve's shoulder who was sitting by the tv. Spine and the others was in the sofa as well. It was Mickey Mouse cartoon on the tv and Spine just looked bored at first unlike Jon and Hatchworth who laughed in amusement almost every time the characters did something silly, but soon even he let out a chuckle from time to time. Lil' Steve soon even got annoyed at them, making the others laugh even more.  
-Thank you, Peter, for letting us stay." Nora said softly and even if she couldn't see him smile she could still imagine that he smiled when she heard his soft voice.  
-You're welcome. You are our family too after all."  
-Dread's family are our family!" Jon said with a smile that made his face almost shine like the sun.  
-Thanks, Jon."  
Dread smiled, mom seemed happy, just like she did before dad had died and he hoped she and Caitlyn would come by more times in the future, or even stay longer. He then glanced over at Rabbit beside him. The others were talking so they didn’t pay much attention to them, maybe he could try again and tell her?  
-Rabbit..."  
-Y-yeah?" she asked and looked at him expectantly, she knew what he was going to say.  
-Em, about...what I tried to tell you, that day after Los Angeles...I like you in a, ehm, special way, like-"  
-I like you too, you dummy." she said with a sweet smile and placed a playful and soft kiss on his cheek before she hugged him close, making his heart pump faster and made him feel both warm and awkward inside.  
-Y-you do?" he stuttred.  
-Yes." she laughed.  
-G-great..." he said and smiled slightly. As he hugged back a little unsure he looked over at the others again. Everyone was happy, just as it should be and together. And for the first time in a long time he felt happy as well. He now knew what real happiness was.

_You exist to be yourself and love yourself and others. Your life is your life, be careful with it and don't turn yourself against others and make bad decisions, that will later haunt you and hurt you. Stay strong_


	23. Bonus chapter: Secrets unfolded

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Walter Manor sure is big, filled with surprises and secrets. One day when Dread and Rosé is exploring in their new home, they find some old pictures of Rabbit and the others, mostly from their days at war, back when Rabbit was a male, and they question their older siblings about it. Takes place before Peter introduces Dread to his real family and before Rose´s birthday.

Dread and Rosé had started to get used to their new home. It was big and still full of surprises and secrets. Rosé loved to explore around the house, dragging Dread with him. Even if Rabbit and the others had showed them around already, it felt as if there were so much they haven’t showed them.  Dread saw a door and opened it in curiosity, remembered they had mentioned a door that led to the basement. They hadn’t showed them the basement. He turned on the light, it was still dark since the lamp was old. Rosé seemed unsure about going down there, but Dread liked scary things unlike her, he even imagined he was in a horror movie and was gonna walk down the basement. _This could be interesting._ He looked down at Rosé and patted her shoulder.

-You can stay here if you want, I won’t be gone for long.”

-I-I wanna come with you.” She said softly.

-Alright then.” Dread sighed and they made their way down the stairs, Rosé was close by his side. When they were down there was a few rooms to go into, but it was all dark and while Dread felt after the switch to turn on the lights he felt Rosé hug his leg. He glanced down, saw the weak light from her blue eyes.

-It’s alright, Rosé, there must be a switch here somewhere.”

After some moments of looking he finally found it and the room was now filled with light. What looked like water tanks stood by the wall and the walls were dark and the color had almost disappeared. This was the most old and dirty looking room they had seen in this big building, as if the others hadn’t been in here that often. Cartons and bags covered the stone floor. An old shelf stood by the corner, looked like it would break down at any second, a heating element, that was ice cold, was beside it, filled with spiderweb. More shelves and cabinets were around the room as well. Dread was the first one to start exploring around and opened the shelves. Rosé quickly ran to his side.

-Looks like they haven’t been here in ages. None of the other rooms are in this shitty condition.”

Rosé nodded in agreement, glancing around. A box caught her attention and she went over to try and open it. The lock was heavy and was stuck from having been untouched for who knows how long. Dread helped her.

-It’s photos.” Rosé said with a smile. It sure was, old photos taken years ago, some were black and white. There were of cars and tanks they had in war and there were even pictures of different soldiers as well. Some of just one person and some with a few standing close to each other, on one it stood Peter Walter 1. But then there were some pictures of robots they have never seen before and giant steam powered giraffes and Dread remembered Spine had mentioned they had robot giraffes with them when they had been to war. It had been interesting when they had told them about it but seeing pictures of it made it even more interesting. There must then be a photo of-

-Look, Dread! It’s Jon and the others!” Rosé cheered, making Dread jump slightly. He immediately looked at it as well. It was Jon, Hatchy and Spine but then there was a male beside them they didn’t recognize but it strangely reminded them of Rabbit in some way. Dread studied it closer. Has Rabbit been a-

_Suddenly something flashed before him, like a memory or something like that. It looked like a boy at first, had short hair and was turned, only their back was visible. But when they turned to look at him, he noticed they had makeup and a slim shirt that had a low-cut. They had short hair and kind eyes that also held sadness in them. He didn’t know why but he felt like he should know this person but couldn’t make himself remember. The only thing he could hear was… a name._

_Catilyn_

He snapped back to reality when he felt Rosé touch his arm.

-Are you ok, Dread?”

-Yeah, I’m just fine, sorry, I guess I spaced out for a moment there…”

They continued to look at the pictures in interest, there were more pictures of Jon and the rest even from after the war, but then the darker pictures came. Pictures of dead soldiers, pictures of dead people, lists of the names of those who had died. Dread swallowed, his throat felt dry. He immediately put the pictures aside so Rosé wouldn’t see it but she off course had managed to notice one and looked up at him, looked like she was close to crying.

-Were those people… dead?” she asked in a small voice.

-No, not at all, sis.”

-You are lying. I know you do.”

 _Shit._ He hated when she could see right thru him like that, she was smart for being so young. She sure wasn’t like most other “kids”.

-Yes, they were.”

-Why do people kill each other and fight?”

-I have no idea, sis. I really have no idea... I guess, they think that is the only solution to things. Some don’t like those that are different either, so they kill them instead.”

-Why? Everyone is still people.”

-…”

-I simply don’t understand sometimes.”

Dread gave her a sad smile.

-Not me either.”

After they had studied the pictures they made their way up again, closed the basement door silently after them. They had just managed to close it and walk a few steps before Jon and Hatchworth came running.

-Hi, Rosé and Dread!” Jon greeted “We are playing hide and seek, wanna help us look for Rabbit?”

-She’s good at hiding.” Hatchworth continued.

-Sure thing.” Dread answered. While they were looking, Hatchworth went over to walk beside them.

-Sooo, what were you doing in the basement?” he asked curiously, no anger or something like that was heard in his voice.

-Oh… em, we just explored a little.”

-Isn’t it scary down there?”

-Well, a little, I guess.”

-Well did you-“

-Found her!” Jon cried out as he dragged Rabbit out from her hiding place, under one of the beds, Michael’s or Steve’s , and hugged her.

-Alright, alright, bro, you found me.” Rabbit laughed.

-I told you so! I am the best searcher!”

-You sure are.”

Dread watched in silence, were in thought again. Those robots that were smiling, playing, innocent… had been thru hell, things Dread could never have imagined. How could they still be so-

-Hey, Dread, ya alright?” he suddenly heard Rabbit ask. “Did you see a ghost or something” she joked but he could see something like concern in her eyes.

-Yes, I’m fine. I just… thought about something…”

-About what?” she asked curiously, Hatchworth and Jon looked over at him as well. Rosé glanced up at Dread, as unsure as he was. The others must have seen it too and noticed Dread didn’t know how to answer. Rabbit glanced down at Rosé.

-S-s-something wrong?” she asked, more serious this time. Rosé shook her head slightly, glanced at Dread again. But as he was about to stutter out and answer, Rabbit stopped him.

-Y-you know, f-forget it.” She said.

-Right…”

-You know what, we could use some more in the game, right bro’s? Wanna join?”

-Sure.” Dread said while Rosé smiled and was the first one to get over to them.

But he knew they had to tell them what they saw and ask them about it. They sure must have stored the pictures in the basement to _forget_ it but… still. He needed to know for sure.

They played for a while, everything was normal, but Dread still thinking about what he and Rosé had seen, the pictures still in his head. They would probably think bad about them if he told them they were in their more serious stuff. As he was hiding in one of the more empty wardrobes, he thought I silence. Something clicked in his head when he remembered Rabbit’s clothes, one had stood out more from the others, looked like they belonged to someone else, a male robot but none of the others had it on their shows. When he was found it was Rose’s turn to hide. Since she was the smallest she was the best one to hide, even better than Rabbit, could fit almost everywhere and she had no problem with being quiet. After a long while of looking for her they finally found her between some shelves she had easily squeezed thru.

-Nice hiding place, sis.” Rabbit said with a smile and gave her a warm hug she always did. As they were walking towards the living room Dread and Rosé found the courage to ask them.

-Guys, can we ask something?” Dread asked. They stopped in the middle of the corridor and turned to look at them.

-Sure!” they said.

-Well, when we were exploring the basement, we found some pictures of you when you were at war and right after it.”

They went death silent and Dread didn’t miss the way Jon looked over at Rabbit nervously.

-I’m sorry, we didn’t mean to sneak around but… we found a picture of you and I was just wondering… was the male robot you Rabbit?”

Rabbit glanced down and didn’t answer at first, Dread was about to apologise again when she softly spoke up.

-Yes, it was.”

-Why haven’t you told us before, Rabbit?” Rosé asked softly.

-I-I didn’t like to t-think back on anything that was about the war, none of us do, so we just stored most of the pictures in the basement and even forgot about it. And since I became a woman I haven’t liked to see my old self, I remember that it just felt wrong being in that male body, even how unsure and sad I was…”

-I understand, Rabbit. And I understand you guys don’t wanna think about it but remember that I and Rosé will never hate you or judge you. You are all cool guys, and you Rabbit is so brave for telling us the truth. It doesn’t matter what gender you are, robot or human.”

-You are still our friend.” Rosé finished and wrapped her small arms around Rabbit who hugged back

-Thank you.” She said softly, as if she was close to crying.

-Is it alright if I hug you too, Dread?”

-Sure, if it makes you feel better.”

She hugged him close as well and he almost had to bent to wrap his arms around her. He felt her embrace on him was tight and by the way she laid her head against him it looked like she was trying to hide, as if she felt safe in his arms. After some long seconds they let go of each other and Rabbit gave him a thankful smile and he smiled back. They didn’t speak more about it until it was time to go to sleep. As Dread walked towards his and Jon’s room, Rabbit walked up to him.

-Goodnight, and… thanks again, both of you.”

-No problem.” Dread said with a gentle smile.


End file.
